Efficacy of germination and probiotic fermentation on underutilized cereal and millet grains

Abstract

Abstract: Cereals and millets have been known as poor man’s crops for a long time, and have good potential in the mercenary system of food and in research and development but these coarse grains have been leftover and underutilised since a long time. In addition to nutritional properties, various elements of cereal grains contain phenolic compounds as well as various anti-nutritional factors. To improve the nutritional quality and availability of these grains, they are processed in several ways. This review discusses the effect of pre-processing techniques such as germination with a combination of probiotic fermentation on various components of underutilised coarse cereals and millets and advantages it brings into the final product. Germinated food mixture usually contains a significantly higher amount of thiamine, lysine and niacin contents. The combination of cereals with other methods results in better nutrient profile and an enhanced amino acid pattern. Fermentation is said to be the most crucial and popular process which considerably lowers the antinutrients present in coarse cereals such as trypsin inhibitor, phytic acid and tannins and hence, enhance the overall nutritive value of coarse cereals and other food grains. Also, germinated cereal-based food products have higher cell count and better growth of beneficial bacteria, thus, germination of cereals facilitates the probiotic fermentation of cereals. Graphical abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.]