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Selenium in Nutrition, Revised Edition (1983) / Chapter Skim
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7 EFFECTS OF EXCESS SELENIUM
Pages 107-113

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From page 107...
... SELENIU M TOXICITY IN LABORATORY ANIMALS ACUTE TOXICITY The minimum lethal dose of selenium as sodium selenite or selenate in rabbits, rats, and cats was 1.5 to 3.0 mg/kg body weight regardless of whether the salts were given orally, subcutaneously, intraperitoneally, or intravenously (Smith et al., 1937~. Animals receiving such acute doses of selenium compounds develop a garlicky breath odor because of the exhalation of volatile methylated selenium metabolites.
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From page 108...
... Aside from garlicky breath odor, animals acutely poisoned with selenium exhibit vomiting, dyspnea, tetanic spasms, and death from respiratory failure (Franke and Moxon, 1936~. Pathological changes include congestion of the liver, with areas of focal necrosis; congestion of the kidney; endocarditis; myocarditis; petechial hemorrhages of the epicardium; atony of the smooth muscles of the gastrointestinal tract, gallbladder, and urinary bladder; and erosion of the long bones, especially the tibia.
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From page 109...
... (1972b) reported that excess selenium intake in rats decreased fibrinogen levels and prothrombin activities and elevated serum alkaline phosphatase and glutamic-pyruvic or glutamic-oxaloacetic transaminase activities.
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From page 110...
... No symptoms pathognomonic of human selenium poisoning were found, and no serious illness definitely attributable to selenium toxicity was observed. Vague symptoms of anorexia, indigestion, general pallor, and malnutrition were reported, and more pronounced disease states such as bad teeth, yellowish discoloration of the skin, skin eruptions, chronic arthritis, diseased nails, and subcutaneous edema were seen.
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From page 111...
... reported signs of selenium toxicity in rats fed diets that included defatted Brazil nut flour containing 51 ppm of selenium. Brazil nuts marketed in the United States also are high in selenium, with 6 percent of one sample containing 100 ppm or more (Palmer et al., 1982~.
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From page 112...
... It was not possible to estimate the daily dietary intake of selenium in the endemic-selenosis area of China during the period of peak prevalence, but the dietary intake some time after the peak prevalence had subsided averaged 4.99 mg/day with a range of 3.20 to 6.69 mg/day (Yang et al., 1983~. A tentative maximum acceptable daily selenium intake for the protection of human health of 500 fig was proposed by Sakurai and Tsuchiya (1975~.
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From page 113...
... Multiplying the lower of both estimates gave the lowest level of potentially dangerous selenium intake, i.e., 50 X 10 or 500 ,ug/day. Obviously, progress in selenium toxicology would be greatly enhanced if a more specific and sensitive test of selenium overexposure could be developed.
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Key Terms

  • selenium toxicity
  • alkali disease
  • selenium poisoning
  • excess selenium
  • selenium levels

  • selenium compounds
  • chronic selenium
  • rats fed
  • accumulator plants
  • dietary selenium

  • fed diets
  • acute selenium
  • dimethyl selenide
  • hematocrit values
  • various biochemical

  • transaminase activities
  • male rats
  • pathological nails
  • blind staggers
  • inorganic selenium

  • clinical signs
  • alkaline phosphatase
  • garlicky breath
  • breath odor
  • serum alkaline

  • human selenium
  • caused alkali
  • selenium exposure
  • elevated serum
  • urine selenium


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