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Content, Bioavailability and Health Effects of Trace Elements and Bioactive Components of Food Products Cultivated in Organic Agricultural Systems (OrgTrace)
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 in organically grown plant food products.
The main objectives of OrgTrace are:
1. To characterise and optimise the content of trace elements and bioactive compounds in crop plants harvested from a well-defined organic cultivation system including realistic combinations of plant species, soil type, crop rotations and fertilizers.
2. To assess the bioavailability of the bioactive compounds in human intervention studies employing prepared diets based on the crops produced within the systems.
3. To characterise how biomarkers for health and well-being are affected by the dietary treatments using a rat-model and to study the development of the immune defence system according to the dietary treatments.
Based on different plant products produced in OrgTrace, diets are composed and the bioavailability of health promoting substances are analysed in a human intervention study and various health effects such as immune system responses are studied using rats as a model.
OrgTrace is the first study, which follows selected bioactive compounds all the way from the plant and soil system to absorption in the human body.
Contact person
Associate Professor Søren Husted
University of Copenhagen
Department of Agricultural Sciences
Thorvaldsensvej 40
DK-1871 Frederiksberg C, Denmark
Tel.: +45 35 33 34 98.
E-mail: shu@life.ku.dk