MICRONUTRIENT CONTENTS IN SELECTED NATIVE GRASSES FROM THE CORRIENTES PROVINCE

BERNARDIS, ALDO CEFERINO; VILLAFAÑE, ROXANA NOELIA; FURLONG, OCTAVIO JAVIER; MARCHEVSKY, E; PELLERANO, ROBERTO GERARDO

Potrero de los Funes

Congreso; XXX Reunión Anual de la Sociedad de Biología de Cuyo; 2012

Although micronutrients are required in relatively small quantities, they play important metabolic roles in the plant physiology, and deficiencies can lead to severe depression in crop productivity. Apart from deficiencies which limit crop growth, concentrations and bioavailability of micronutrients in food/feed stuffs may be lower than nutritionally desirable for livestock or humans. In this context, the aim of this work is to determine the concentration of 4 mineral micronutrients (Cu, Fe, Mn and Zn) in aerial parts of mixture forage, collected from the Corrientes Province region. Twenty samples were analyzed by inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectroscopy (ICP-OES). Microwave-assisted acid digestion of samples was used to eliminate the organic matter. The means of total content in the raw material were: Cu (2.3 µg g-1), Fe (45.3 µg g-1), Mn (172.4 µg g-1) and Zn (20.8 µg g-1). The results revealed that the mixture forage analyzed were poor in the contents of various essential elements (from the nutritional quality point of view). These results suggest the need for mineral supplementation for livestock production.