NaCl and glucose improve health-promoting properties in mung bean sprouts

The demand for healthy foods with high functional value has encouraged the search for alternatives to enhance beneficial food characteristics. Special attention has been given to edible sprouts due to their high nutritional value. This study conducted on mung bean sprout to assess the effect of various concentration of NaCl (1, 10, 50, 100 mM) and glucose (5, 10, 50, 100, 200 mM) solutions plus a control with distilled water on sprout growth and health-promoting properties—ascorbic acid, phenolic compound and flavonoid contents as well as the phenylalanine ammonia-lyase (PAL) and the antioxidant activities. Low to moderate levels of NaCl (1–50 mM) and glucose (5–100 mM) solutions had no effect on the fresh weight of sprout. Moderate to high concentrations of NaCl and glucose solutions significantly increased the health-promoting properties. The highest phenolic content, PAL and reducing power activities were observed in the treatment of 150 mM glucose (51.30, 34.68 and 42.05% higher than the control, respectively), whereas the highest amount of flavonoid and ascorbic acid as well as radical scavenging activity were recorded in 100 mM NaCl (37.66, 235.21 and 43.55% higher than the control, respectively). Although the sprout fresh weight significantly decreased with 100 mM NaCl and 150 mM glucose treatments, these results suggest that concentrations of NaCl and glucose less than 100 and 150 mM, respectively, were the appropriate treatments for the enhancement of most of the health-promoting properties in the sprout without adverse effects on their yield. These findings indicate that NaCl and glucose could be considered alternative technologies for the production of low-cost functional foods to diversify the bean market.