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Effect of Germination Environment on Nutrient Composition of Alfalfa Sprouts
Author(s) -
HARRISON J. E.,
VANDERSTOEP J.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
journal of food science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.772
H-Index - 150
eISSN - 1750-3841
pISSN - 0022-1147
DOI - 10.1111/j.1365-2621.1984.tb13659.x
Subject(s) - germination , composition (language) , ascorbic acid , distilled water , nutrient , food science , chemistry , urea , carbohydrate , amino acid , essential amino acid , botany , biology , biochemistry , chromatography , linguistics , philosophy , organic chemistry
Alfalfa seeds were germinated for 120 hr utilizing solutions of 0.05M (NH 4 SO 4 , 0.05M urea, 0.05M KNO 3 , 0.1M KNO 3 or distilled water for rinsing. One of the water rinsed samples was flushed with CO 2 after each rinse. Proximate analysis, NPN, amino acids and reduced ascorbic acid contents were measured to determine the effect of germination environment on the nutrient composition. The sprouts had significantly increased crude protein values but reduced fat and carbohydrate concentrations as compared to the seeds. True protein content increased significantly in the sprouts rinsed with 0.05M (NH 4 SO 4 or 0.1M KNO 3 . The essential amino acid patterns of these were not significantly affected. Although the treatments used did not appear to affect adversely the composition of the sprouts, visually the sprouts did suffer somewhat.