Explore the vast range of titles available.

Germination can be used to enhance nutritional value and health functions of edible seeds. Sprouts are considered healthier than raw seeds because they are richer in the basic nutritional components (carbohydrates, protein, vitamins, and minerals) and also contain more bioactive components responsible for various biological activities. The effect of sprouting on the antioxidant, antidiabetic, antiobesity activities, and metabolite profiles of alfalfa and buckwheat seeds was investigated in this study. DPPH radical scavenging activity was highest in buckwheat sprouts followed by alfalfa sprout, buckwheat seed, and alfalfa seed, respectively. ABTS radical scavenging potential showed a similar trend as DPPH with buckwheat sprouts exerting the best scavenging capacity. Alfalfa sprout and buckwheat seed exhibited the highest percentage inhibitory activity of α-glucosidase (96.6 and 96.5%, respectively). Alfalfa sprouts demonstrated the strongest inhibitory activity against pancreatic lipase (57.12%) while alfalfa seed showed the highest advanced glycation end products (AGEs) formation inhibitory potential (28.7%). Moreover, thirty-three (33) metabolites were characterized in the seed and sprout samples. Sprouts demonstrated a higher level of metabolites compared to raw seeds. Hence, depending on the type of seed and the target activity, sprouting is a good technique to alter the secondary metabolites and functional properties of edible seeds.

The antioxidant and antidiabetic properties and metabolite profiling of ethanol extracts of red cabbage (RC) and broccoli (BR) seeds and sprouts were investigated in this study. The total phenolic, flavonoid, and saponin contents were in the ranges of 385.4–480.4 mg FAE/100 g, 206.9–215.6 mg CE/100 g, and 17.8–27.0 mg soysaponin BE/100 g, respectively. BR seed had the highest total phenolic (480.4 mg FAE/100 g) and flavonoid (216.9 mg CE/100 g) contents, whereas BR sprout had the highest saponin content (27.0 soysaponin BE/100g). RC sprout demonstrated the highest antioxidant capacity, with DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging activity levels of 71.5% and 88.5%, respectively. Furthermore, BR and RC sprouts showed the most potent inhibition against α-glucosidase (91.32% and 93.11%, respectively) and pancreatic lipase (60.19% and 61.66%, respectively). BR seed (60.37%) demonstrated the lowest AGE inhibition. A total of 24 metabolites, predominantly amino acids and phenolic compounds, were characterized using UHPLC-QTOF-MS/MS. Germination not only improved the levels of metabolites but also resulted in the synthesis of new compounds. Therefore, these findings show that germination effectively enhanced the functional properties and metabolite profiles of broccoli and red cabbage seeds, making their sprouts more applicable as functional ingredients.

The consumption of plant sprouts as part of human day-to-day diets is gradually increasing, and their health benefit is attracting interest across multiple disciplines. The purpose of this review was to (a) critically evaluate the phytochemicals in selected sprouts (alfalfa, buckwheat, broccoli, and red cabbage), (b) describe the health benefits of sprouts, (c) assess the recent advances in sprout production, (d) rigorously evaluate their safety, and (e) suggest directions that merit special consideration for further novel research on sprouts. Young shoots are characterized by high levels of health-benefitting phytochemicals. Their utility as functional ingredients have been extensively described. Tremendous advances in the production and safety of sprouts have been made over the recent past and numerous reports have appeared in mainstream scientific journals describing their nutritional and medicinal properties. However, subjects such as application of sprouted seed flours in processed products, utilizing sprouts as leads in the synthesis of nanoparticles, and assessing the dynamics of a relationship between sprouts and gut health require special attention for future clinical exploration. Sprouting is an effective strategy allowing manipulation of phytochemicals in seeds to improve their health benefits.

Eight new genotypes of brown sorghum grain were decorticated and assessed for their antioxidant, antidiabetic and antiobesity activities in vitro. The DPPH and ABTS radical scavenging assays of the soluble fractions were evaluated, followed by digestive enzymes and advanced glycation end-products (AGEs) formation inhibition assays. DSOR 33 and DSOR 11 exhibited the highest DPPH (IC50 = 236.0 ± 1.98 µg/mL and 292.05 ± 2.19 µg/mL, respectively) and ABTS radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 302.50 ± 1.84 µg/mL and 317.05 ± 1.06 µg/mL, respectively). DSOR 17, DSOR 11 and DSOR 33 showed significantly higher inhibitory activity of both α-glucosidase and α-amylase (IC50 = 31.86, 35.10 and 49.40 µg/mL; and 15.87, 22.79 and 37.66 µg/mL, respectively) compared to acarbose (IC50 = 59.34 and 27.73 µg/mL, respectively). Similarly, DSOR 33, DSOR 11 and DSOR 17 showed potent inhibition of both AGEs and lipase with IC50 values of 18.25, 19.03 and 38.70 µg/mL; and 5.01, 5.09 and 4.94 µg/mL, respectively, compared to aminoguanidine (52.30 µg/mL) and orlistat (5.82 µg/mL). Flavonoids were the predominant compounds identified, with flavones being the major subclass in these three extracts. Our findings suggest that decorticated sorghum grains contain substantial amounts of flavonoids and could be promising candidates for the prevention and treatment of diabetes and obesity.

Obesity is a condition that leads to increased health problems associated with metabolic disorders. Synthetic drugs are available for obesity treatment, but some of these compounds have demonstrated considerable side effects that limit their use. Polyphenols are vital phytonutrients of plant origin that can be incorporated as functional food ingredients. This review presents recent developments in dietary polyphenols as anti-obesity agents. Evidence supporting the potential application of food-derived polyphenols as agents against obesity has been summarized. Literature evidence supports the effectiveness of plant polyphenols against obesity. The anti-obesity mechanisms of polyphenols have been explained by their potential to inhibit obesity-related digestive enzymes, modulate neurohormones/peptides involved in food intake, and their ability to improve the growth of beneficial gut microbes while inhibiting the proliferation of pathogenic ones. Metabolism of polyphenols by gut microbes produces different metabolites with enhanced biological properties. Thus, research demonstrates that dietary polyphenols can offer a novel path to developing functional foods for treating obesity. Upcoming investigations need to explore novel techniques, such as nanocarriers, to improve the content of polyphenols in foods and their delivery and bioavailability at the target sites in the body.

The advent of omic technology has made it possible to identify viable but unculturable micro-organisms in the gut. Therefore, application of multi-omic technologies in gut microbiome studies has become invaluable for unveiling a comprehensive interaction between these commensals in health and disease. Meanwhile, despite the successful identification of many microbial and host–microbial cometabolites that have been reported so far, it remains difficult to clearly identify the origin and function of some proteins and metabolites that are detected in gut samples. However, the application of single omic techniques for studying the gut microbiome comes with its own challenges which may be overcome if a number of different omics techniques are combined. In this review, we discuss our current knowledge about multi-omic techniques, their challenges and future perspective in this field of gut microbiome studies.

Polyphenols are natural high-valued secondary metabolites of plant that demonstrate strong antimicrobial potential as natural preservatives besides their well-established health promoting benefits. This review highlights the challenges, novel strategies to achieve industrial production of polyphenols and their safe use as potential alternative natural preservative. Since plant extraction presents considerable limitations of high cost due to excessive energy and solvent requirements, climate and long growth cycles, microbial biosynthesis using highly advanced omics techniques and metabolic engineering tools could provide superior alternative for commercial production of environmentally sustainable and cost-effective high-value metabolites in a short time. In spite of the many beneficial effects, some plant metabolites and polyphenol compounds at high dosage are found to be pro-oxidant or mutagenic with toxicity. Due to the controversial findings from sub-chronic and oral toxicity studies, more detailed safety and efficacy studies are needed to substantiate findings. Furthermore, extensive research efforts are required to ascertain optimal dosage for safe use in various foods to avoid potential harmful side effects.

This study evaluated the potential antioxidant and antidiabetic properties in vitro of four millet grain varieties cultivated in South Korea. The free fractions were tested for their total antioxidant capacity using 2,2′-azino-bis (3-ethylbenzothiazoline-6-sulfonic acid) diammonium salt (ABTS+) and 2,2′-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging assays, followed by α-glucosidase, α-amylase, and advanced glycation endproducts (AGEs) formation inhibition assays. The total phenolics, flavonoids, and condensed tannins in the free fractions ranged from 107.8 to 136.4 mg ferulic acid equivalent (FAE)/100 g, 101.3 to 115.8 mg catechin equivalent (CE)/100 g, and 17.65 to 59.54 mg catechin equivalent (CE)/100 g, respectively. Finger Italian millet had the highest total phenolic content (136.4 mg FAE/100 g) and flavonoid content (115.8 mg CE/100 g). Barnyard and finger Italian millet showed the highest DPPH (IC50 = 359.6 µg/mL and 436.25 µg/mL, respectively) and ABTS radical scavenging activity (IC50 = 362.40 µg/mL and 381.65 µg/mL, respectively). Similarly, finger Italian millet also exhibited significantly lower IC50 values for the percentage inhibition of α-glucosidase (18.07 µg/mL) and α-amylase (10.56 µg/mL) as compared with acarbose (IC50 = 59.34 µg/mL and 27.73 µg/mL, respectively) and AGEs formation (33.68 µg/mL) as compared with aminoguanidine (AG) (52.30 µg/mL). All eight phenolic compounds identified in finger Italian millet were flavonoids, with flavanols being the predominant subclass. Taken together, millet flavonoids play important roles in the prevention and management of type 2 diabetes, and hence finger Italian millet has the potential to be developed as a functional food.

We conducted a comprehensive evaluation of the antioxidant, anti-obesity, anti-diabetic, and anti-glycation activities associated with the consumption of broccoli, red cabbage, alfalfa, and buckwheat seeds. Additionally, we explored the relationship between these biological activities and the profiles of amino acids, polyphenols, and organic acids identified in the seeds. Our findings demonstrated that red cabbage, broccoli, and buckwheat extracts exhibited significantly higher antioxidant potential compared to the alfalfa extract. Moreover, buckwheat displayed the most significant capacity for inhibiting alpha-glucosidase. Remarkably, broccoli and red cabbage demonstrated substantial anti-glycation and lipase inhibitory potentials. We identified the presence of amino acids, polyphenols, and organic acids in the extracts through untargeted metabolomics analysis. Correlation analysis revealed that pyroglutamic acid positively correlated with all the investigated functional properties. Most polyphenols made positive contributions to the functional properties, with the exception of ferulic acid, which displayed a negative correlation with all tested biological activities. Furthermore, gluconic acid and arabinonic acid among the organic acids identified displayed a positive correlation with all the functional properties. These results strongly support the anti-diabetic, anti-obesity, and anti-glycation potential of red cabbage, broccoli, and buckwheat seeds.

The prevalence of metabolic syndrome (MetS) is presently an alarming public health problem globally. Oxidative stress has been postulated to be strongly correlated with MetS, such as type 2 diabetes, obesity, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases, and certain cancers. Cereals are important staple foods which account for a huge proportion of the human diet. However, owing to recent growing demand and the search for natural antioxidants for the prevention and management of MetS, cereal peptides have gained increasing attention for developing functional ingredients or foods with substantial antioxidant properties. This review explores the current production techniques for cereal peptidic antioxidants and their potential mechanism of action in the prevention and management of MetS.