Assessing mineral and toxic elements content in rice grains grown in southern Brazil

Abstract The development of rice genotypes with higher mineral content and less accumulation of toxic elements can help to mitigate problems related to mineral deficiency and insure consumption of safe foods. However, genetic improvement depends on the presence of genetic diversity. Therefore, here we characterize a rice panel, grown in southern Brazil, regarding iron (Fe), zinc (Zn), selenium (Se), manganese (Mn), copper (Cu), arsenic (As), cadmium (Cd) and lead (Pb) content in irrigated system with permanent flooding. The environment of each harvest season significantly influenced Cu, Zn, Se, Fe and Mn content in rice grains. None of the analyzed rice genotypes can meet the daily recommendation of Fe and Zn, being the highest contents detected for these mineral of ∼17 and ∼27 mg kg−1, respectively. We detected genotypes able to supply Mn, Cu and Se demand, and genotypes accumulating ∼37, ∼5, ∼0.200 mg kg−1 were detected, respectively. None of the analyzed genotypes showed Cd and Pb accumulation above the Brazilian allowed limits. However, As content was above of the allowed limit for most of the studied accessions, and some genotypes reached 1 mg kg−1of As in their grains. Among the genotypes, low genetic diversity was detected for the evaluated elements.