NaCl-CaCl2 treatment enhancing nutritional and functional quality of mung bean sprouts

In this study, the effects of NaCl, CaCl2 and NaCl-CaCl2 treatments on the growth profiles, nutritional quality, phytic acid degradation-lower inositol phosphate formation system of germinated mung bean were investigated. Mung bean seeds were germinated at 30 oC in darkness for 4 days and sprayed solutions containing distilled water, 1.6 mM NaCl, 6 mM CaCl2, and 1.6 mM NaCl plus 6 mM CaCl2 every 1 h . Samples were collected every 2 days in liquid nitrogen for experiments and each experiment was repeated three times. The results showed that the NaCl-CaCl2 treatment improved nutritional quality significantly for the higher content of ascorbic acid, soluble sugar and free amino acid content in mung bean sprouts. Meanwhile, NaCl-CaCl2 treatment was also the most effective way to improve the degradation of phytic acid by enhancing phytase activity and the related gene expressions. This led to a higher level of the lower inositol phosphate content in mung bean sprouts. These results suggest that NaCl-CaCl2 treatment had a better influence on improving nutritional and functional quality of mung bean sprouts than NaCl and CaCl2.