Environmental and nutritional safe production of sunflower green sprouts in house

Abstract

The effects of sprouting media, seeding density, seed soaking and sprouting date of sunflower on sprout characters and yield were studied. Growing sunflower green sprouts indoors in clay with vermiculite and adding 10% compost medium gave the highest sprout weight and yield compared with other media. Unsoaked seeds, 50% seeding density and September sprouting date were ideal for sunflower sprout production. Sprout content of protein, carbohydrates, lipids, fiber, ash, minerals (Fe, P. K. Mg, Ca, Na, Zn. Cu and Mn), vitamins (A, B1, B2, C and E), amino acids and fatty acids compared with hulled seeds was investigated. The sprouts showed marked increases in protein, carbohydrates and ash, and decreased in lipids and fiber content compared with seeds. On a dry weight basis, sunflower sprouts showed a noticeable increase in Fe, K, Mg, Ca, and Na but a slight increase in P, Zn, Cu and Mn compared with seeds. Vitamins A, B2 and C increased while B1 and E decreased as compared with seeds. Sprouting of sunflower seeds caused a decline in most of amino acids while aspartic acid, histidine and lysine increased. During sprouting, oleic and linoleic fatty acids decreased. Linolenic fatty acid was not detected in seeds while it was detected after sprouting in 5 days old green sprouts. Development of food products from germinated sunflower may be promising in Egyptian human foods for its nutritional advantageous due to low content of fats and high protein, vitamins and minerals utilization.