Biofortifcation of Wheat Grain with Copper Through Soil Fertilization

Abstract

Abstract In recent years, in the literature, there have been frequent reports of insuffcient amounts of copper in the diet of various groups of the inhabitants of our country. This is disturbing as the adequate input of copper is signifcant from the point of view of prevention of cardiovascular diseases. At the same time, grain of wheat cultivated in Poland is characterized by low content of this element. Considering that the main source of Cu is bread and cereal preparations, the important issue is to increase the content of Cu in the grain of wheat. If the defciency in the diet is accompanied by the defciencies in the soil, biofortifcation through fertilization is a favourable solution. Pot experiments have shown the pos-sibility to signifcantly increase Cu content in the grain of wheat as a result of soil fertilization with copper. It was also found that a small difference between the defciency and surplus of Cu in the grain may lead to some copper excess content, especially on the soils with low organic matter content. For this reason, biofortifcation of wheat with copper requires a precise determination of soil fertilization doses under the conditions of feld experiments.