Development and Evaluation of Iodine Biofortification Strategies for Vegetables

Iodine is an essential trace element for humans which is not ingested in sufficient quantities in many regions of the world. In spite of the wide use of iodized table salt, large portions of the German population are still inadequately supplied with the trace element. Therefore, further efforts are needed to improve the alimentary intake of iodine. The aim of this dissertation was to develop an agronomical biofortification strategy for enriching vegetables with iodine by means of fertilization with iodine salts. Hence, foliar and soil application approaches were implemented and compared using a selection of different vegetable species in order to detect the influence of various environmental, application and soil factors affecting the iodine uptake by plants.