Controlled grain germination is a method of emerging interest to naturally improve nutritional and nutraceutical profile of grains. The aim of this study was to optimize germination temperature and time using response surface methodology to maximize the concentration of ɣ-amminobutyric acid (GABA), phenolic compounds (PC) and the antioxidant activity of kiwicha (Amaranthus caudatus) grains. The optimal germination temperature and time were 26 °C and 63 h, respectively, in which GABA, PC and antioxidant activity increased 29.1, 4.0 and 6.4-fold, respectively. Individual phenolic composition of kiwicha sprouts obtained in the optimal conditions was analyzed by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS. Sprouting in the optimal germination conditions enhances mainly the concentrations of 4-O-caffeoylquinic, 4-O-feruloylquinic acids and quercetin-3-O-rutinoside. Predicted models were significant (P < 0.05) for all ...

This work was supported by the Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (MINECO, Spain) and FEDER programme from the European Commission (grant number AGL2013–43247-R). E. P. acknowledges the MINECO and European Social Fund for her “Ramón y Cajal” grant. L. P-M. acknowledges the Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnología (CONCYTEC, Perú) for fi nancial support.

The objective of this study was to optimize germination time and temperature for maximizing the content of γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA), total phenolic compounds (TPC), and antioxidant activity in purple corn sprouts by using Response Surface Methodology (RSM). The phenolic composition of purple corn sprouts obtained in the optimal conditions was analyzed by HPLC-DAD-ESI/MS. Temperature of 26 °C and time of 63 h were found to be the optimal germination conditions since they enhanced 3.5-fold GABA content compared with seeds. These conditions, however, reduced ∼30 and ∼15% TPC and antioxidant activity, respectively, in purple corn. The models developed showed high coefficients of determination, demonstrating their adequacy to explain the variations in experimental data. Sprouts obtained in the optimal conditions presented anthocyanins as the most abundant phenolic class, detected main...

Germination has been proposed as an economic approach to improve the content of bioactive compounds in pseudocereals. In this work, response surface methodology (RSM) was employed to investigate the impact of germination conditions on the phytochemical content and antioxidant activity of quinoa. The use of desirability methodology showed that the optimum conditions to maximise the content of total phenolic content (TPC) and antioxidant activity in sprouted quinoa were 20 °C for 42 h. Sprouts produced under these conditions exhibited increases of 80% and 30% in TPC and antioxidant activity, respectively, compared to un-germinated seeds, and contained high c-aminobutyric acid (GABA) concentration. The nonsignificant lack-of-fit and high determination coefficients obtained confirmed the suitability of the predictive models developed for TPC and antioxidant activity, whilst the one obtained...