Lithium in the food chain “soil – plants – animals – humans” (literature review)

Research conducted over the past decades indicate to the essentiality (vital necessity) of the ultratrace element lithium. One of the criteria for the essentiality of trace elements (TE) is their participation in natural food chains of the type “soil-water-plants-human”, “water-human”. The paper presents the results of systematization of the literature on the participation of lithium in natural food chains. When searching for literature in English-language databases (Pubmed, Scopus, Web of Science, EMBASE), the query “lithium AND (soil OR plants OR food chain OR human nutrition OR dietary intake OR nutrient) NOT batteries NOT niobate NOT electrodes NOT materials NOT anode” was used, which found one thousand eight hundred sixty seven reports; when searching in the Russian-language RSCI on this topic, 120 reports were found. The systematization was carried out using topological data analysis methods with the selection of a representative set of publications. It has been shown that fertilizing soil with lithium salts improves the bioaccumulation of lithium by plants and increases the growth rates of useful (agricultural) plants (lettuce, spinach, potatoes, etc.). Lithium in soils improves the fixation of carbon and nitrogen by plants. Lithium, especially in inorganic forms (sulfate, carbonate, chloride) is most actively absorbed by plants, and humans and animals absorb it from plants. Available foods contain very small amounts of lithium: the average daily lithium intake is less than 140 µg / day with a recommended daily lithium intake of 1000 µg/day for adults. Ecologically significant doses of lithium (in particular, the content in drinking water) have a beneficial effect on health, leading to a decrease in suicide rates and violence on a population scale. Enrichment of various mushroom cultures with lithium is a promising direction for increasing the lithium supply of the human diet.

Contribution:
All authors took an equal part in writing the article.
All authors are responsible for the integrity of all parts of the manuscript and approval of the manuscript final version.

Acknowledgment. The authors express their sincere gratitude to DSc (Biology), professor V.M. Kodentsova for her advisory assistance in preparing the article.

Conflict of interest. The authors declare no conflict of interest.

Funding. The study had no sponsorship.

Received: May 23, 2025/ Accepted: October 15, 2025 / Published: April 17, 2026

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