Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review
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Department of Agricultural, Food and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, Italy
2
Groupe de Recherche en Physiologie végétale, Earth and Life Institute-Agronomy (ELI-A), Université catholique de Louvain, 5 (Bte 7.07.13) Place Croix du Sud, 1348 Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium
3
Faculty of Bioscience and Technologies for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, Via Carlo Lerici 1, 64023 Teramo, Italy
4
Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Via Salaria 1, 63030 Monsampolo del Tronto, Italy
*
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Nutrients 2019, 11(2), 421; https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020421
Received: 22 January 2019
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Revised: 2 February 2019
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Accepted: 13 February 2019
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Published: 17 February 2019
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Grains and Human Health)
In the last decade, there has been an increase in the use of sprouted grains in human diet and a parallel increase in the scientific literature dealing with their nutritional traits and phytochemical contents. This review examines the physiological and biochemical changes during the germination process, and the effects on final sprout composition in terms of macro- and micro-nutrients and bioactive compounds. The main factors affecting sprout composition are taken into consideration: genotype, environmental conditions experimented by the mother plant, germination conditions. In particular, the review deepens the recent knowledge on the possible elicitation factors useful for increasing the phytochemical contents. Microbiological risks and post-harvest technologies are also evaluated, and a brief summary is given of some important in vivo studies matching with the use of grain sprouts in the diet. All the species belonging to Poaceae (Gramineae) family as well as pseudocereals species are included.
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Keywords:
whole grain; germination; sprout; elicitation; phytochemical; health; microbiological safety
This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited
MDPI and ACS Style
Benincasa, P.; Falcinelli, B.; Lutts, S.; Stagnari, F.; Galieni, A. Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review. Nutrients 2019, 11, 421. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020421
AMA Style
Benincasa P, Falcinelli B, Lutts S, Stagnari F, Galieni A. Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review. Nutrients. 2019; 11(2):421. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020421
Chicago/Turabian StyleBenincasa, Paolo, Beatrice Falcinelli, Stanley Lutts, Fabio Stagnari, and Angelica Galieni. 2019. "Sprouted Grains: A Comprehensive Review" Nutrients 11, no. 2: 421. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11020421
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