At national and European level among dietitians the Selenium deficiency gets more and more emphasis. We haven’t heard of it for decades, neither science knew it but nowadays we know that the lack of Selenium acts important role in the development of many serious diseases. How could we complete it? For instance with Selenium-enriched mushroom. Hungarian idea, national development, we trust it will be successful.
Selenium is found in soil and rock, accumulating in plants and hereby enters the food chain. Selenium can be found in most of the food, it is very good source of nuts (especially Brazil nuts), fish and seafood, organ meats (liver, kidney) and meats. Cereals, vegetables, and other plant-derived foods also contain selenium, but the amount depends on the quality of the soil.
In the human body a lot of material called Seleniumprotein participate in strengthening the immune system. These materials help our body in combating against free radicals and cancer. In case of lack of Selenium these functions are slower and have worse operation so our immune system is under constant attack. According to statistics, the national level of Selenium intake is only half of the recommendations and it is strongly recommended the continuous replenishment. This could be done with nutritional supplements but a well-chosen diet can achieve a much better effect. Those food types are very important which can complete the lack of Selenium of the body: for instance Seleno-bread, or margarine with Selenium. According to primary studies white button mushroom is also suitable for Selenium replacement if it is able to enrich it in its body. Thus Selenium-enriched mushroom can help in replacing the Selenium need of the body which as a national-developed functional food could be found on the shelves soon.
The R&D department of Aporka-based Hungarian-owned Bio-Fungi Ltd’s is working on the technology of a new product. During the research at different points of the technology, inorganic and organic Selenium compounds are inserted that the white button mushroom could absorb and build into the growing cells during its growth. They examine how the Selenium added into the soil of the white button mushroom enters the mushroom and how can we increase the Selenium of our body by the consumption of mushroom.
Selenium enrichment in white button mushroom, results
In the previous experiments it was found out that raw material treatments with the Selenium salt greatly influence the Selenium content of the mushroom. With the Selenium liquid with yeast they achieved higher Selenium enrichement (almost 1,5 times more) than in case of the water liquid. The Selenium content calculated on solid content of the control muhsroom on normal soil not treated with Selenium salt was 1 mg/kg. For fresh mushroom this means 0,1 mg/kg because raw mushroom contains 90% of water so in 1 kg of muhsroom there is 100 micrograms of Selenium. So in a portion (200 grams) of raw mushroom we give 20 micrograms of Selenium to our body. It is recommendable to give 10 times more of that valuse which could improve the Selenium level of our body and this is lower than the poisionous limit. The aim is to reach that maximum limit. Eating 200 grams of white button mushroom you can obtain 200 micrograms of Selenium which is only the lower value of the upper limit of the daily requierment. This can’t reach the toxic range even if Selenium is got into our body with other food buti t is enough to provide this essential micro-nutrient for our body in the adequate quantity.
