Sprouts and Microgreens—Novel Food Sources for Healthy Diets

Abstract

With the growing interest of society in healthy eating, the interest in fresh, ready-to-eat, functional food, such as microscale vegetables (sprouted seeds and microgreens), has been on the rise in recent years globally. This review briefly describes the crops commonly used for microscale vegetable production, highlights Brassica vegetables because of their health-promoting secondary metabolites (polyphenols, glucosinolates), and looks at consumer acceptance of sprouts and microgreens. Apart from the main crops used for microscale vegetable production, landraces, wild food plants, and crops’ wild relatives often have high phytonutrient density and exciting flavors and tastes, thus providing the scope to widen the range of crops and species used for this purpose. Moreover, the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals often vary with plant growth and development within the same crop. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are often more nutrient-dense than ungerminated seeds or mature vegetables. This review also describes the environmental and priming factors that may impact the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals of microscale vegetables. These factors include the growth environment, growing substrates, imposed environmental stresses, seed priming and biostimulants, biofortification, and the effect of light in controlled environments. This review also touches on microgreen market trends. Due to their short growth cycle, nutrient-dense sprouts and microgreens can be produced with minimal input; without pesticides, they can even be home-grown and harvested as needed, hence having low environmental impacts and a broad acceptance among health-conscious consumers.

Extracellular vesicles derived from microgreens of Raphanus sativus L. var. caudatus Alef contain bioactive macromolecules and inhibit HCT116 cells proliferation

“…Brassica vegetables are known to contain high levels of vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, phenolic compounds, and unique compounds, glucosinolates. Sprouts and microgreens of Brassica vegetables have gained acceptance in the population with health concerns because of their health-promoting secondary metabolites and higher nutritional value than those in their mature-leaf counterparts 80 – 82 . One study reported nutritional contents per 100 g of the edible portion of microgreens from R. sativus var.…”

Growth, Yield and Photosynthetic Performance of Winter Wheat as Affected by Co-Application of Nitrogen Fertilizer and Organic Manures

“…When nitrogen and manure are applied, the Jindong 22 cultivar is improved, and the total chlorophyll is higher than that of the Zhongmai 175 cultivar. Winter-wheat leaves improve the absorption of blue violet light by improving the comparative content of chlorophyll, thus improving the utilization of the small amount of light for crops in weak light [ 45 , 46 ]. Moreover, the chloroplast’s capacity to reduce chemical compounds is improved, and the content of light-collecting developments of green plants and the movement of the photosynthetic organic method are better [ 47 ].…”

Trial Protocol for Evaluating Platforms for Growing Microgreens in Hydroponic Conditions

“…Phytochemicals (e.g., carotenoids and phenolics) are found in significant amounts in microgreens [22]. Carotenoids possess antioxidant activity and play important physiological roles in the human body [106].…”

“…However, the advantages of hydroponic platforms and the development of evaluation protocols can lead to a positive influence on the quality of microgreens with higher concentrations of active substances [18,19] and nutrients valuable for human health [20][21][22]. This is why it is necessary to standardize certain cultivation protocols to ensure their quality [23][24][25].…”

“…Microgreens are currently considered among the five most profitable crops, along with mushrooms, ginseng, saffron and goji berries [43]. Therefore, developing species-specific growth media to support year-round production and to enhance valuable antioxidant components is affordable and of utmost importance for the microgreens industry [19,22,43]. It is particularly important that the fundamental research into ensuring the safety and quality of this new addition to healthy diets, microgreens, is carried out so that the produce industry can avoid some of the problems that have challenged the mature produce and sprout industries during the past several decades [44,45].…”