Enrichment of Different Plant Seeds with Zinc and Assessment of Health Risk of Zn-Fortified Sprouts Consumption

Zinc (Zn) is a nutrient that regulates many vital functions of the human body, hence the demand for Zn in the balanced daily nutrition has to be covered. Priming of seeds with Zn for Zn-enriched sprout production can be considered a good alternative to artificial supplementation in a modern diet. Hence, the aim of our study was to determine the exposure level of Zn bringing neither risk for humans nor growth inhibition of enriched broccoli, pea and sunflower sprouts. Seeds treated with 0, 10, 20 and 30 mu g mL(-1)ZnSO(4)responded in a differentiated way to Zn. Pea seed germination and sprout growth was diminished by 30 mu g mL(-1)ZnSO(4), but for sunflower sprouts this Zn level resulted in the highest fresh mass and largest hypocotyls. Zn content in sprouts greatly increased in a dose-dependent manner, mostly in broccoli (up to 25 times) and peas (up to 4 times), and to a lesser extent (up to 120%) for sunflowers. Free radical scavenging activity was usually decreased. Considering the potential non-carcinogenic risk of sprouts consumption estimated by the hazard analysis, the safest exposure level for seed priming will be 10 mu g mL(-1)ZnSO(4). It was confirmed by random amplification of polymorphic DNA analyses indicating no DNA variations in sprouts treated with 10 mu g mL(-1)ZnSO(4)compared to the control.