A STUDY ON FOOD SELENIUM RESOURCES AND ITS DEVELOPMENT
膳食硒资源及其开发研究

Selenium (Se) is an essential element for human life. Se deficiency may cause function disorder of important organs in human body and lead to the occurrence of multiple diseases. Modern medicinal studies indicated that Se has certain remarkable physiological functions such as anticancer, prevention and control of cardiovascular disease and Keshan disease, antiageing, enhancement of immunity function, etc. As 72% of China's territory is situated in Se deficiency or low Se zone, inadequate food Se intake has affected the health of several hundreds of millions of Chinese population. Therefore, exploitation of food Se enrichment has become a key subject for scientific research. The paper discusses the forms and distribution of food Se, and gives an overall review of the natural Se rich products, Se rich plant cultivation, production of Se rich animal products as well as the ways for the development and utilization of food Se resources including Se yeast, Se malt and others.