Evaluation of selenium consumption by Mongolian residents
AbstractSelenium is one of the essential elements which adequate consumption is strictly necessary for human health. Despite unfavorable geographical position of Mongolia and registered cases of selenium deficiency diseases among domestic animals in some provinces of the country there are still no concrete data of selenium content in objects of the environment in this region. The aim of the present work was the evaluation of selenium consumption levels by adults from different provinces of Mongolia and the development of methods of prophylactic for the selenium status optimization. Detection of selenium deficiency in Mongolia was caused by inadequate selenium content in foodstuffs. Determined mean consumption levels were equal to 41.8±4.9 μg/day for males and 34.1±3.1 μg/day for females. The main reason of low selenium content in the diet was its deficiency in native foodstuffs: selenium concentrations in meat of domestic animals μg/kg d.w.) reached 109-296 in beef, 94-200 in mutton, 120-225 in horseflesh and 124-197 in goat's flash, values did not differ between each other statistically (p>0.05). The exception were samples of horseflash with selenium concentration exceeding 400 μg/kg d.w. from Gov-Altai province. Selenium content in wheat was in the range 6-36μg/kg d.w., with the lowest levels in Dornod, Ucs and Selenge provinces. Selenium content in eggs was equal 6.7-7.8 μg/egg. The correction of selenium deficiency is recommended to achieve using preparations of Astragalus Mongolicus from Bulgan province with selenium concentration 278±26μg/kg d.w. Besides this utilization of Mongolicum Tricholoma Mushrooms (from the vicinity of Ulaanbaatar and from Zavkhan province) seems to be highly promising due to high selenium concentrations (616±26 μg/kg d.w. and 352±17μg/kg d.w. respectively).
Keywords:Mongolia, selenium, diet, foodstuffs