Germination, harvesting stage, antioxidant activity and consumer acceptance of ten microgreens

Abstract

Microgreens which are tender immature seedlings of vegetables and herbs are known for their health beneficial effects. The concept of microgreens is generally less popular in many countries including Sri Lanka. Ten species were tested to obtain data on seed germination, height gain, leaf area expansion, and consumer acceptance. Of these, three species of which the seeds are commonly consumed in Sri Lanka were analyzed for antioxidant activities as seeds, sprouts, and microgreens. Seed germination of most of the species was>75% with the time taken to reach 75% germination (G 75) varying from 1 to >14 days. A strong positive correlation between seedling and leaf area was observed (R 2 =0.8). Lettuce and carrot were found to be the most preferred microgreens followed by green peas, red amaranth and finger millet. For the three selected species where respective seeds, sprouts, and microgreens were compared, higher antioxidant activities were recorded in finger millet seeds and sesame microgreens; IC 50 697 µg/mL and IC 50 772 µg/mL respectively with the latter recording a high total phenol content (4873 mg/100g dry weight). Green pea microgreens showed higher total phenol content than its seeds and sprouts (1871 mg/100 g dry weight). The information generated will be of value to introduce microgreens to countries where consumers are unfamiliar with this product.