Ozkutlu Faruk, Sekeroglu Nazim, Koca Ufuk, Yazici Gizem
Department of Soil Science, Faculty of Agricultural, Ordu University, 52200, Ordu, Turkey.
Nat Prod Commun. 2011 Oct;6(10):1469-72.
Recent scientific studies have proven the importance of trace elements on human health. The main food supplies are plants and animals, which are significant sources of these minerals. Studies on determining mineral compositions of herbs, spices and some other crops have increased all over the world. Published works revealed that spices, herbs and medicinal plants should be consumed to obtain beneficial trace elements. Selenium (Se), one of the most vital trace elements, has a significant role in human diet acting as a preventative agent against some serious illnesses. Despite numerous scientific works on mineral compositions of medicinal and aromatic plants, investigations of selenium content in these foods could not be successfully studied until recently due to the lack of suitable analytical methods for selenium analysis. Thus, publications on selenium concentrations of foods are recent. In this regard, selenium contents of some medicinal and aromatic plants commonly used as spices, herbal teas and traditional medicines in Turkey were studied in the present research. Selenium contents of the most used parts of these plants were analyzed by ICP-OES (Varian Vista-Pro, Australia). Of the analyzed 26 medicinal and aromatic plants, the highest Se concentration (1133 microg kg-1) was found in sweet basil (Ocimum basilicum L.) and the lowest in sumac (Rhus coriaria L.) fruits (11 microg kg(-1)).
近期的科学研究已证实微量元素对人类健康的重要性。主要食物来源是植物和动物，它们是这些矿物质的重要来源。世界各地对确定草药、香料及其他一些作物矿物质成分的研究有所增加。已发表的研究表明，食用香料、草药和药用植物可获取有益的微量元素。硒（Se）作为最重要的微量元素之一，在人类饮食中起着重要作用，可预防一些严重疾病。尽管有大量关于药用和芳香植物矿物质成分的科学研究，但由于缺乏合适的硒分析方法，直到最近才成功研究这些食物中的硒含量。因此，关于食物中硒浓度的出版物较新。在这方面，本研究对土耳其常用作香料、花草茶和传统药物的一些药用和芳香植物的硒含量进行了研究。通过电感耦合等离子体发射光谱仪（Varian Vista-Pro，澳大利亚）分析了这些植物最常用部分的硒含量。在所分析的26种药用和芳香植物中，甜罗勒（Ocimum basilicum L.）的硒浓度最高（1133微克/千克），漆树（Rhus coriaria L.）果实中的硒浓度最低（11微克/千克）。
