Content, Bioavailability and Health Effects of Trace Elements and Bioactive Components in Organic Agricultural Systems

Trace elements, bioactive secondary metabolites and vitamins are among the most important quality parameters in plants. Yet, very little information is available on their content, bioavailability and health effects of organically grown plant food products. The main objective of the project is to study the impact of different agricultural management practises relevant for organic farming on the ability of cereal and vegetable crops to absorb trace elements from the soil and to synthesise bioactive compounds (secondary metabolites, antioxidant vitamins and phytates) with health promoting effects. Field experiments with a rigidly controlled design will be implemented together with state-of-the-art analytical techniques allowing solid conclusions to be drawn on the variability and optimum levels of bioactive compounds. The multitude of analytical data from plant and soil samples will be analysed by multivariate statistical methods in order to reveal differences between the cultivation systems used. Finally, the relationship between bioavailability of the nutrients studied and the elemental fingerprint of plants will be extracted by the statistical methods.