Morphological and biochemical features of selenium-enriched plant Allium schoenoprasum L. and evaluation of its ability to exert antitumor activity in mice with transplantable tumors

The influence of selenium inorganic forms on the morphological and biochemical parameters of Allium schoenoprasum plant was studied. Phenological observa- tions showed that seed treatment with a solution of sodium selenate affected the growth rate of plants at early stages of ontogenesis by increasing the germina- tion rates and germinating capacity compared to control. The additional intro- duction of selenium influenced the morphology of developing plants and resulted in reduction in the length of roots, increasing in the length of bulbs depending on the concentration of sodium selenate. In the leaves of selenium-enriched chives of the first year of life the decrease in the content of trace elements com- pared to control, especially significant for iron, aluminum and manganese, was observed. For plants of the second year of life such effect was not found. The additional introduction of Se generally did not affect the content of total nitro- gen in leaves of chives, however, there was the decrease in the mass fraction of nitrogen of amino acids compared to control. The results of the study of antitu- mor action of the aqueous suspension of the selenium-enriched forms of onion showed that in conditions of its preventive regular intake in male mice BDF there occurs weak growth inhibition of solid carcinoma Lewis in the early stages of tumor development (18,0-31,2 %). It is established that the inhibitory effect (defined both as change of volume and reduction of tumor mass) of selenium- enriched forms of onion compared to onions grown traditionally, was absent.