Ebert Andreas W
World Vegetable Center, 60 Yi-Min Liao, Shanhua, Tainan 74151, Taiwan.
Plants (Basel). 2022 Feb 21;11(4):571. doi: 10.3390/plants11040571.
With the growing interest of society in healthy eating, the interest in fresh, ready-to-eat, functional food, such as microscale vegetables (sprouted seeds and microgreens), has been on the rise in recent years globally. This review briefly describes the crops commonly used for microscale vegetable production, highlights vegetables because of their health-promoting secondary metabolites (polyphenols, glucosinolates), and looks at consumer acceptance of sprouts and microgreens. Apart from the main crops used for microscale vegetable production, landraces, wild food plants, and crops' wild relatives often have high phytonutrient density and exciting flavors and tastes, thus providing the scope to widen the range of crops and species used for this purpose. Moreover, the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals often vary with plant growth and development within the same crop. Sprouted seeds and microgreens are often more nutrient-dense than ungerminated seeds or mature vegetables. This review also describes the environmental and priming factors that may impact the nutritional value and content of phytochemicals of microscale vegetables. These factors include the growth environment, growing substrates, imposed environmental stresses, seed priming and biostimulants, biofortification, and the effect of light in controlled environments. This review also touches on microgreen market trends. Due to their short growth cycle, nutrient-dense sprouts and microgreens can be produced with minimal input; without pesticides, they can even be home-grown and harvested as needed, hence having low environmental impacts and a broad acceptance among health-conscious consumers.
随着社会对健康饮食的兴趣日益浓厚，近年来全球对新鲜、即食的功能性食品（如微型蔬菜，即发芽种子和嫩苗菜）的兴趣不断上升。本综述简要描述了常用于微型蔬菜生产的作物，强调了微型蔬菜因其具有促进健康的次生代谢产物（多酚、硫代葡萄糖苷）而受到关注，并探讨了消费者对芽苗菜和嫩苗菜的接受度。除了用于微型蔬菜生产的主要作物外，地方品种、野生食用植物以及作物的野生近缘种通常具有较高的植物营养素密度和令人兴奋的风味和口感，因此有扩大用于此目的的作物和物种范围的空间。此外，同一作物中植物化学物质的营养价值和含量往往随植物生长发育而变化。发芽种子和嫩苗菜通常比未发芽的种子或成熟蔬菜营养更丰富。本综述还描述了可能影响微型蔬菜植物化学物质营养价值和含量的环境和引发因素。这些因素包括生长环境、生长基质、施加的环境胁迫、种子引发和生物刺激剂、生物强化以及受控环境中光照的影响。本综述还涉及嫩苗菜市场趋势。由于其生长周期短，营养丰富的芽苗菜和嫩苗菜可以以最少的投入生产；无需使用农药，甚至可以在家中种植并按需收获，因此对环境影响小，受到注重健康的消费者广泛认可。
