Agriculture
Boron in plants and soil
Although the first verifiable use of borates dates back to the 8th century AD, mankind has relied on them unknowingly since the advent of agriculture, nearly 10,000 years ago.
In fact, plants cannot grow without boron. Boron is an essential micronutrient, integral to a plant’s life cycle. Required only in small amounts, boron is necessary in plants to control flowering, pollen production, germination, and seed and fruit development. It also acts as a fuel pump, aiding the transmission of sugars from older leaves to new growth areas and root systems.
While boron is naturally present in all soil, there are some regions where heavy rainfall, geological characteristics or farming practices have leached the boron from the land, leaving too little to support plant and crop survival. It’s not surprising that fertilizers are one of the main products formulated with borates. Fertilizers containing borates have proven effective in increasing the productivity of soil in regions where natural borate levels are low.
Some crops require relatively large supplements of boron, too, including cotton, corn, alfalfa and soybeans.
Boron in food
As plants draw borates from the soil, the boron is distributed throughout the stems, leaves, roots and other structures. When people eat plant-derived foods — such as fruits, vegetables, nuts and legumes - they routinely absorb small amounts of boron. Studies indicate that people in a wide variety of cultures consume about one to three milligrams of boron per day through a combination of foods and drinking water in their local diets. Although it has not yet been proven that humans need boron to live, there is almost universal agreement in the scientific community, including the World Health Organization, that boron is nutritionally important to maintain optimal human health.
In fact, the U.S. EPA recently increased the allowable daily dose of boron from 6.3 milligrams to 14 milligrams per day. The United States Food and Nutrition Board, a division of the National Academy of Science’s Institute of Medicine, also increased its boron ingestion recommendations in 2001, setting set the daily tolerable upper intake level at 20 milligrams. Most of us ingest a healthy amount of boron each day as a result of our normal fruit and vegetable intake. If not, many beverages, including coffee, wine and beer, do the job as well.
Our bodies are very familiar with boron in our environment and they efficiently manage our daily dietary intake by using what is required and excreting the rest. In fact, regardless of the source of boron exposure, once it is ingested or inhaled, our bodies handle it just as they do any other nutrient.
