Abstract
Growing public concerns about health haves prompted the search for novel food sources. The study is focused on the seeds, sprouted seeds and microgreens of Trifolium pratense, T. medium, Medicago sativa, M. lupulina, Onobrychis viciifolia, Astragalus glycyphyllos and A. cicer species as a potential source of value-added food ingredientsr. The samples were analysed for nutritional (wet chemistry, standard methods) and mineral (atomic absorption spectroscopy, UV-Vis spectrophotometry) profiles, isoflavones (ultra-performance liquid with diode array detector –UPLC-DAD), coumestrol (UPLC-DAD), condensed tannins (CT) (vanillin-H2SO4 assay) and triterpene saponins (UPLC with triple-stage quadrupole MS). In our study, each species displayed high, but species-dependent nutritional, mineral and phytochemical value. All counterparts of legumes were mineral and protein rich. A. glycyphyllos samples, especially seeds, were abundant in iron. Trifolium spp. were found to be important sources of isoflavones, Medicago spp. of coumestrol and saponins, and O. viciifolia of CT. The protein and phytochemical contents increased and total carbohydrates decreased from seeds to microgreens.Our findings proved for the first time that seeds, sprouted seeds, and especially microgreens of small-seeded legumes are promising new sources of ingredients for fortification of staple foods with bioactive compounds, minerals and nutrients.
Highlights
Nowadays, the question is to eat for survival, but to be aware of what we eat and know that the food will provide the opportunity to enjoy the quality of life for longer [1]
Like in the above ground part of the legume plants [16,18], in seeds and germinated products, saponins and coumestrol were specific to M. sativa (Msa), M. lupulina (Mlu) and condensed tannins (CT) to O. viciifolia (Ovi), Table 4 shows the change in these compounds only in the samples of the aforementioned species
The absorbance was measured at 500 nm with UV-Vis spectrophotometer T60 (Oasis Scientific Inc., Taylors, SC, USA). (+)-Catechin was used for calibration and the CT concentration was expressed as mg/g of catechin equivalents (CE) of a dry mass mg(CE)/g
Summary
The question is to eat for survival, but to be aware of what we eat and know that the food will provide the opportunity to enjoy the quality of life for longer [1]. Natural health benefit products and functional foods embrace a wide range of foods or their ingredients, characterized by diversity of bioactive components which effectively promote health and prevent diseases beyond basic nutrition [2] Such complex properties are characteristic of legume seeds and their germinated products containing high contents of protein, carbohydrates, minerals and various health promoting phytochemicals. This study set out to evaluate forage legumes from the new viewpoint as a beneficial source for healthy food through the quantitative determination of the nutritional, mineral and phytochemical compositions in the chain raw seeds-sprouted seeds-microgreens. The study hypothesis was that seeds and sprouts of perennial legumes are of high nutritional value and are rich in various secondary metabolites, which are dependent on plant species and ontogenic stage (raw seeds, sprouted seeds, microgreens)
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