Study on comparative biomass yield, nutritional quality and economics of hydroponic sprout produced from different grains

Abstract

This study was conducted to know the biomass yield, nutritional qualities and production costs of hydroponic sprout of maize, wheat and oats compared to their whole grains as feed. Weighed amount of seeds were soaked in water for 12, 24 and 2 hours, respectively followed by wrapping in cotton cloths for 48 h for maize and wheat, and 24 h for oats to germinate.Then germinated seeds were spread on plastic trays fitted in hydroponic racks for 7 days. At harvest, fresh yield was found 2.74, 3.5 and 2.5 kg for maize, wheat and oats, respectively from each kilogram of respective seed (p<0.01). The DM concentrations in maize (857.0 vs 764.6 g/kg; p<0.05) and oat sprout (911.5 vs 453.0 g/kg; P<0.01) were decreased, while not changed (P>0.05) in wheat sprout (900.7 vs 872.0 g/kg) compared to their respective grain. In contrary, concentration of CP was significantly increased in wheat (126.1 vs 183.3 g/kg DM; P<0.05) and oat sprout (158.8 vs 201.7 g/kg DM; P<0.01) and numerically in maize sprout (61.2 vs 81.3 g/kg DM) compared to respective grain. Similarly, concentrations of ADF and NDF was increased (P<0.01) in all sprouts from their respective grains. Contents of Vitamin E and soluble sugar (SS) both were increased in wheat (1.1 vs 2.3 & 443.7 vs 477.0 mg/100g, respectively in grain vs sprout; P<0.01) and oat sprout (11.0 vs 13.4 & 351.5 vs 356.2 mg/100g, respectively in grain vs sprout; P<0.01), while in maizeonly vitamin-E was increased (3.51 vs 8.1 mg/100g, respectively in grain vssprout; P<0.01), but SS was decreased (489.4 vs 462.5 mg/100g, respectively in grain vssprout; P<0.01). Maize sprout was found yeast and mold-free, but both of them (7.16 & 7.0 log10 CFU/g) were grown in wheat sprout, while only yeast in low concentration (5.74 log10 CFU/g) was found in oat sprout. The production cost of DM was found 1.5, 1.7 and 2.6 times higher in maize, wheat and oat sprout, respectively compared to grain. Further study including animal feeding trial is needed to confirm the benefits of producing hydroponic sprout instead of using grain as concentrate.
 Bang. J. Livs. Res. Vol. 26 (1&2), 2019: P. 51-60