Effect of sugar addition on the enrichment of oligosaccharides in soybean sprouts

Abstract

The soybean contains a high amount of oligosaccharides that will be degraded during germination, however, oligosaccharides are one of the phytochemicals that need by the human body. This study aimed to investigate the effect of sugar addiction (glucose, sucrose and galactose) to enhance the oligosaccharides content in soybean sprouts. It can be assumed that sugar addition could replace the glucose for respiration process of soybean sprouts thus the oligosaccharides degradation for glucose provision was not required. The soybean seeds prior to germination were soaked into sucrose 3%, sucrose 6%, glucose 3 % and fructose 3%. The oligosaccharides in soybean were analyzed by using the high-performance liquid chromatography with the charged aerosol detector. Although the degradation of oligosaccharides produced glucose used for the respiration of germinated soybean sprouts, the addition of sugar in replacing the glucose produced by oligosaccharides was not effective. The oligosaccharides still degraded during the germination process. The higher of glucose concentration, the number of oligosaccharides would be reduced. In the conclusion, the replacement of glucose that is used for the respiration of germinating soybean sprouts could not be conducted by the external addition of sugar. Another approach needs to be considered further.