The effect of artificial lights on the growth and quality of hydroponic cultivated barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) sprouts

Abstract

We analyzed the growth and quality characteristics of barley sprouts grown under artificial light sources consisting of a fluorescent lamp or light-emitting diode (LED) in an aquaculture system (grown with water only, without nutrients). At the end of the observation period, the shoots grown under the fluorescent lamp treatment were the longest, followed by the LED treatment and natural lighttreatment. It was also observed that growth was faster for sprouts subjected to a non-sterilizing treatment than those subjected to a 70% ethanol treatment. As the seed sowing rate for planting trays increased, the yield of harvested barley sprouts increased; among light treatments, the natural light treatment resulted in the lowest yield, while the fluorescent light treatment resulted in the highest. The total phenol and total flavonoid contents of extracts of the barley sprouts were highest for the natural light treatment, but TEAC and FRAP were both highest for the fluorescent lamp treatment. The essential amino acid content ranged from 41.64 to 45.93 mg/g and was relatively higher for the natural light treatment than the other two t reatments, while the content of nonessential amino acids was highest for the LED treatment. The total amino acid content was highest for the LED treatment at 97.47 ± 6.30 mg/g, for which the content of non-essential amino acids (53.17%) was higher than that of essential amino acids (46.83%).â"'Korean Society for Plant Biotechnology.