Relationship between soil contents and plasma levels of selenium, chromium and manganese in healthy adult Nigerians

The soil contents of trace elements selenium, chromium and manganese were measured to determine their impact on the plasma levels of 160 healthy adult Nigerians in five different experimental locations in Cross River and Akwa Ibom States, South - South Nigeria. The mean (±SD) soil selenium, chromium and manganese concentrations were 2.86 ± 3.97, 15.93 ± 3.35 and 90.33± 42.65 mg/kg, respectively. Manganese soil concentration was the highest and selenium soil concentration was the lowest in all the locations. The mean (±SD) plasma selenium, chromium and manganese concentrations were 0.006, 0.111 ± 0.031 and 0.028 ± 0.024 mg /1, respectively. There were no significant differences between the concentrations of the trace elements in the soil and the plasma levels as determined by t-test. Plasma levels of chromium and manganese according to the study were adequate but that of selenium was low. Keywords: Healthy adult Nigerians, trace elements, plasma level, soil content African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(34), pp. 5339-5346