Simultaneous biofortification of wheat with zinc, iodine, selenium, and iron through foliar treatment of a micronutrient cocktail in six countries

Official URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1021/acs.jafc.9b01829

Field experiments were conducted on wheat to study the effects of foliar-applied iodine(I) alone, Zn (zinc) alone, and a micronutrient cocktail solution containing I, Zn, Se (selenium), and Fe (iron) on grain yield and grain concentrations of micronutrients. Plants were grown over 2 years in China, India, Mexico, Pakistan, South Africa, and Turkey. Grain-Zn was increased from 28.6 mg kg(-1) to 46.0 mg(-1) kg with Zn-spray and 47.1 mg(-1) kg with micronutrient cocktail spray. Foliar-applied I and micronutrient cocktail increased grain I from 24 mu g kg(-1) to 361 mu g kg(-1) and 249 mu g kg(-1), respectively. Micronutrient cocktail also increased grain-Se from 90 mu g kg(-1) to 338 mu g kg(-1) in all countries. Average increase in grain-Fe by micronutrient cocktail solution was about 12%. The results obtained demonstrated that foliar application of a cocktail micronutrient solution represents an effective strategy to biofortify wheat simultaneously with Zn, I, Se and partly with Fe without yield trade-off in wheat.