,m-RCI1Î.V E's
FISHERIES AND MARINE SERVICE
Translation Series No. 3284
The need for selenium in food
by N. Yasumoto
Original title:
From:
Shokuhin ni fukumare.ru Seren (Se) no hitsuyosei
Rinsho eiyo 43(4) : 403, 1973
Translated by the Translation Bureau(JGO/PS)
Multilingual Services Division
Department of the Secretary.of State of Canada
Department of the Environment
Fisheries and Marine Service
Halifax Laboratory
Halifax, N. S.
1974
4 pages typescript
•,
OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
DEPARTMENT
TRANSLATION BUREAU
SECRÉTARIAT D'ÉTAT
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eee
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TRANSLATED FROM - TRADUCTION DE
.
de eet
INTO - EN
English
Japanese
AUTHOR - AUTEUR
N. Yasumoto
TITLE IN ENGLISH - TITRE ANGLAIS
The need for Selenium in food
TITLE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE (TRANSLITERATE FOREIGN CHARACTERS)
TITRE EN LANGUE ÉTRANGÉRE (TRANSCRIRE EN CARACTÈRES ROMAINS)
Shokuhin ni fukumareru Seren (Se) no hitsuyosei
REFERENCE IN FOREIGN LANGUAGE (NAME OF BOOK OR PUBLICATION) IN FULL. TRANSLITERAT.E.FOREIGN CHARACTERS.
RÉFÉRENCE EN LANGUE ÉTRANGÉRE (NOM DU LIVRE OU PUBLICATION), AU COMPLET, TRANSCRIRE EN CARACTÈRES ROMAINS.
Rinsho eiyo
REFERENCE IN ENGLISH - RÉFÉRENCE EN ANGLAIS
Clinical Nutrition
PUBLISHER- ÉDITEUR
not given
403
YEAR
ANNÉE
PLACE OF PUBLICATION
VOLUME
ISSUE NO.
NUMÉRO
LIEU DE PUBLICATION
not given
BRANCH OR DIVISION
DIRECTION OU DIVISION
PERSON REQUESTING
DEMANDÉ PAR
1973
Envi ronment_
FiEQUESTING DEPARTMENT
MINISTÉRE-CLIENT
Fisheries Service/
of the—Editor
Allan T.
Reid
PAGE NUMBERS IN ORIGINAL
NUMÉROS DES PAGES DANS
L'ORIGINAL
DATE OF PUBLICATION
DATE DE PUBLICATION
43
4
NUMBER OF TYPED PAGES
NOMBRE DE PAGES
DACTYLOGRAPHIÉES
4.
TRANSLATION BUREAU NO.
NOTRE DOSSIER N°
Office
TRANSLATOR (INITIALS)
TRADUCTEUR (INITIALES)
67680 0
'MO/ PS
DEC 11 1974
YOUR NUMBER
VOTRE DOSSIER N°
UNEDITED TRANSLATION
DATE OF REQUEST
DATE DE LA DEMANDE
6-11-1974
For inforrrnlion only
TRADUCTION NON RLWISEE
Information soulemord
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SECRÉTARIAT D'ÉTAT
DEF'ARTMENT OF THE SECRETARY OF STATE
^.y
BUREAU DES TRADUCTIONS
TRANSLATION BUREAU
MULTILINGUAL SERVICES
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Japanese
JGo/1'S
DEC 1 1 1974
The need for Selenium in food
by N. Yasumoto
Selenium, the Clarke number of which is 1 x 10^5
(ranked 70th, after Ag) and which has chemical characteristics
re,sembling Sulfur, has been given attention as a factor in
•N
'
the
vitamin E economy
because it cures numerous diseases
caused by vitamin E deficiency. But nowadays, because certain
disease symptoms seen in cases where there is no vitamin E deficiency have been prevented by trace quantities of Se (0.02 0.1 ppm in food), it is considered to be an element indispensable in trace quantities to•the nutrition of animals.
Plants can absorb Se contained in the soil and accumulate it in their cells. Poisoning by Se or Se deficiency
can occur in animals depending on the amount of Se contained
in their feed, that is to say in the soil. Because in eastern
America Se deficiency is common among domestic animals and
domestic fowl, in May 1970 the American Cooperative Association of Food Manufacturers sought, in opposition to the FDA,
to sanction the addition to foodstuffs of Se in the form of
UNED{TED TRANSLATION
Por information only
^RADUCTION NON REVISE-E
fnforma!iorZ seu!e;-nc.+nf
SPS..,^,00.-1 0-91
2
Na l Se03 or NaI Se0* in quantities not exceeding 0.25 ppm
(o.35 ppm in foods intended for turkeys). The FDA has not
given final approval to this. The reason is that Se is said
to be carcinogenic.
Research on the carcinogenicity of Se has given inconclusive results, and it is even said that on the contrary
Se can inhibit the action of other carcinogenic substances.
According to a study which covered 19 American cities
(Shamberger etc. 1971), the Se level in the blood of the
people in each city was related to the amount of Se in agricultural produce supplied to that city.
In the city where the
Se level , at 0.25 ppm, was the highest, the rate of deaths
.caused by cancer was the lowest. Where the Se level was the
lowest, or 0.15 ppm (which is close to the deficiency level
in animals), the rate of deaths caused by cancer was the highest of the 19 cities. It cannot be said from these facts alone
that Se has an anti-cancer action, but it might at least be
said that even a high level of Se in the blood, that is to
say a high intake of Se, does not increase the rate of cancer
occurrence.
Past studies on the amount of Se in Japanese foods
are not too revealing, but it has been reported that Butter-
bur,onions, butterbur flowers, garlic , shidoke * , contain
between 1.5 and 2.4 ppm. Judging from natural features of
* Translator's note: meaning unknown
3
the land, it would seem that Japanbse food.s might contain
enough Se to provide the requisite nutritional amount (this
is just a guess, but probably above 0.1 ppm).
There is mutual action between Se, Cd and Hg, and as
a result it ia possible that Se reduces the toxicity of Ca*
and Hg. Se appears to reduce acute toxicity in Cd and Hg
(Mason etc. 1971, Parizek etc. 1967). Again, there is a report
thatwhen Hg in the form of 10 to 25 ppm Methyl Mercury was
added to their food, white rats developed symptoms of mercury
poisoning and after 4 weeks 50% to 100% of th-em died. But
when along with this Methyl Mercury 0.5 - 0.6 ppm Se was added,
their growth was close to normal and their death rate was not
above 0 to 7% (Ganther etc. 1972, Sillings etc. 1972).
The Se contents of marine products seem high by comparison with agricultural and
livestock
products. 'Xhe
amount of Se and Hg.in the ocean appears to be in both cases
0.1 ppb,.and since Hg and Se combine easily with Sulfur in
proteins, Se and Hg accumulate in seafoods to the same degree
and in the same parts. In tuna fish, much discussed on account
of its high Hg content, the Hg content increases as the
fish grows (the rumor that small tuna is safer and the standard
set by
tuna canners?are related to this), and since in
a specimen with 0.3 ppm Hg,
Se cnntents are 1.9 ppm
while in a specimen with Hg contents of 2.8 ppm
are 2.9 ppm, Se increases as well.
^
`l'ranslatorts note: probably a misprint for Cd.
Se contents
,
Ne
•1
4
It is said (Ganther etc. 1972) that when some quails
were given food containing Methyl Mercury and food containing
the same amount of Methyl Mercury to which some tuna fish with
low Hg content
was added as Se in quantities corresponding to
0.3 to 0.6 ppm, the ones'which ate the food containing
tuna lived longer. In places such as Mizumata Bay where highly concentrated Methyl Mercury is evacuated, the accumulation
of Hg, only is rapid. It is not paralleled by the accumulation
of Se, and it is speculated that this might explain the high
toxicity of seafood.
This would be worth studying.
Against the opinion that Se counteracts the toxicity
of Methyl Mercury, there is the criticism that " it does not
affect in the least
the vital relationship between the accu--
mulation of Methyl Mercury and disease symptoms". This writer,
if he has no
intention to set forth e on the basis of the quail
experiment,a theory that tuna fish is harmless, does not
intend either to claim that Se is a wonder element like organic Germanium. But he hopes that Japanese researchers will
• do the research which will provide the answer to this criticism.
(Tokyo University, Department of Agriculture, courses in Food
Industry, Nutrition chemistry, Yasumoto, Assistant Professor)