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Plasma Concentration of Essential and Toxic Trace Elements After Brazil Nut Intake: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

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Abstract

Brazil nut (BN) is a good source of essential nutrients, but little is known about the content of other components, such as toxic elements. Moreover, the high consumption of BN could probably contribute to increased levels of toxic and essential elements in the blood. Thus, this study aimed to evaluate the concentration of essential and toxic trace elements in BN and their concentration in plasma of obese women after regular intake of BN. A randomized controlled clinical trial was carried out with 55 subjects that were randomly assigned to either the Brazil nut group (BN) (n = 29) or the control group (CO) (n = 26) and followed up for 2 months. The BN group consumed one unit of Brazil nut per day, and the CO group did not receive any intervention. The concentration of essential elements (zinc, copper, manganese, and cobalt) and toxic (barium, lead, and cadmium) in BN samples and plasma of obese women (before and after the intervention) were determined by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. Barium followed by copper, and manganese were the trace elements present in higher amounts in Brazil nuts. After the BN intervention period was observed an increase in plasma cadmium (p = 0.002) and a reduction of plasma manganese (p < 0.001) levels. In conclusion, our findings suggest that the regular consumption of BN from the Brazilian Amazon rainforest contributes to the intake of essential trace elements and can be considered safe regarding the content of heavy metals.

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Data Availability

The datasets generated during and/or analysed during the current study are available upon request from gbiude@usp.br.

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Acknowledgements

The authors appreciate all the volunteers for their participation in the study.

Funding

This research was supported by FAPESP – Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo [grant number 2015/02906-2]. GBSD and BZR are grateful for the Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico – Brasil (CNPq) by doctoral scholarships. The funding entity had no role in the design of the study, the collection, analyses, or interpretation of data, the writing of the manuscript, or the decision to publish the results.

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Author notes

  1. Graziela Biude Silva Duarte and Bruna Zavarize Reis contributed equally to this work.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Food and Experimental Nutrition, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Science, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Graziela Biude Silva Duarte, Bruna Zavarize Reis & Silvia Maria Franciscato Cozzolino

  2. Departament of Nutrition, Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte, Natal, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil

    Bruna Zavarize Reis

  3. Department of Nutrition, School of Public Health, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Marcelo Macedo Rogero

  4. Food Research Center (FoRC), CEPID-FAPESP, Research Innovation and Dissemination Centers São Paulo Research Foundation, São Paulo, 05468-140, Brazil

    Marcelo Macedo Rogero

  5. Department of Clinical, Toxicological and Bromatological Analysis, Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences of Ribeirão Preto, University of São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, Brazil

    Fernando Barbosa Jr

  6. Division of Endocrinology and Metabolism (Lim 11), Clinical Hospital, School of Medicine, University of São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil

    Cintia Cercato

Authors
  1. Graziela Biude Silva Duarte
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Contributions

GBSD and BZR: Conceptualization, methodology, investigation, formal analysis, writing — original draft. FBJr: Validation, formal analysis, resources, writing — review and editing. CC: Resources and supervision. MMR and SMFC: Project administration, supervision, funding acquisition, writing — review and editing.

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Graziela Biude Silva Duarte.

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Ethics Approval

All the procedures involving the patients were approved by the Ethics Committee of the Faculty of Pharmaceutical Sciences at the University of São Paulo (CAAE: 40506215.5.0000.0067).

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The authors declare no competing interests.

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Duarte, G.B.S., Reis, B.Z., Rogero, M.M. et al. Plasma Concentration of Essential and Toxic Trace Elements After Brazil Nut Intake: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial. Biol Trace Elem Res 201, 1112–1117 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12011-022-03250-2

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