The potential of lentil (Lens culinaris L.) as a whole food for increased selenium, iron, and zinc intake: preliminary results from a 3 year study

Abstract

Micronutrient malnutrition, especially selenium (Se), iron (Fe), and zinc (Zn) deficiency, is a major global health problem. Previous attempts to prevent micronutrient malnutrition through food fortification, supplementation, and enrichment of staple crops has had limited success. Canadian grown lentils are rich in micronutrients Fe (73-90 mg kg -1 ), Zn (44-54 mg kg -1 ), Se (425-673 lg kg -1 ), and have very low concentrations of phytic acid (2.5-4.4 mg g -1 ). Our preliminary studies using a Caco-2 cell model show that the uptake of Fe from lentils is relatively greater than that of most other staple food crops. Moreover, preliminary results from our human nutrition study in Sri Lanka show an increased trend in blood Se concentration after lentil consumption. This article briefly overviews our previously published results as well as data from international lentil field trials, and describes the potential for biofortified lentil to provide a whole food solution to combat global human micronutrient malnutrition.

Genetic diversity among cultivated and wild lentils for iron, zinc, copper, calcium and magnesium concentrations

“…A considerable proportion (for Fe 14-51%, for Zn 21-64%, for Cu 22-133%, Mg 9-29%) of RDA for minerals would be obtained from consuming 100 g of cooked lentils (Table 2 and 3). This is similar to data reported in previous studies (Thavarajah et al, 2009(Thavarajah et al, , 2011. Percent RDA of Ca was only 1-6% for the genotypes we evaluated, indicating that lentil as a not good source Ca.…”

“…characteristic is present in another related or crossable species (Tullu et al, 2011). Biofortification for mineral traits is a priority research area in food legumes (including lentil) (Grusak, 2009;Thavarajah et al, 2009Thavarajah et al, , 2011Johnson et al, 2013;Iqbal et al, 2006;Hunt 2003). Identifying and utilizing donors with alleles that result in high seed concentrations of mineral nutrients is required for the successful development of biofortified cultivars.…”

“…tomentosus) and three wild species (L. ervoides, L. nigricans, and L. lamottei) (Ferguson et al, 2000). Lentil is a potential candidate for mineral biofortification as its nutritional profile is rich in Fe, Zn, and Se (Thavarajah et al, 2011;USDA National Nutrient Database, 2015). Identification of mineral dense lentil genotypes is a priority for biofortification research.…”

Progress update: Crop development of biofortified staple food crops under HarvestPlus

“…Mineral accumulation of zinc and iron in lentil seeds is influenced by environmental factors such as temperature, soil type, and fertility status [119,121,125,126,127]. Multi-location GxE testing is used to identify advanced lines and varieties with stable highmineral content across different environments and crop seasons.…”

Genetic variability for nutritional quality in Lentil (Lens culinaris Medikus Subsp. culinaris)

“…On average, global pulse consumption is in decline, but lentil consumption is increasing faster than human population growth, making this species ideal for bio-fortification. Thavarajah et al, (2011) presented that lentil has great potential as a fortifiable crop. Seeds of this crop can be utilised as whole food for proving the most of essential nutrients, foliate and anti-nutritional factors (Gupta et al, 2013).…”