Cardnogeoesfs vol.15 no.9 pp.1881-1885, 1994 Enrichment of selenium in allium vegetables for cancer prevention

We previously reported that garlic cultivated with selenium fertilization is superior to regular garlic in mammary cancer prevention in the rat 7,12-dimethylbenz[a]anthra-cene (DMBA) model (Nutr. Cancer, 17, 279-286, 1992). A new crop of high-selenium garlic was harvested in 1992 and was used in a dose-response study to confirm the reproducibility of the product and the bioassay. Supple-mentation of 1 or 2 p.p.m. Se in the diet from the high-selenium garlic produced a 56 % or 75 % reduction respectively in the total tumor yield. Since both garlic and onion belong to the same allium family of vegetables, we were also interested in finding out whether our experience with garlic could be similarly applied to onion. A high-selenium om'on crop was grown in the same season and location and with the same schedule of selenium fertiliza