Variations of nutritional and antioxidant contents of Lepidium sativum L. sprouts as affected by zinc biofortification

Zinc deficiency is a worldwide concern and sprouts biofortification could be an effective remedy to such deficiencies. So, garden cress sprouts are subjected to zinc biofortification and changes of the nutritional, phytochemical and antioxidant contents of the plant material were evaluated as influenced by zinc treatments. As can be revealed, an adequate zinc supplementation (80 μM) increased its content by 123.89 % compared to non treated samples. Zinc biofortification favored an enhancement of protein, iron, potassium, zinc, chlorophyll, carotenoid and flavonoid contents. Zinc treatments resulted in a reduction of antinutrients (tannins and oxalates) and favored an improvement of the antioxidant properties tested by the DPPH scavenging activity, the iron reducing power and the phosphomolybdenum assay. Overall, treatments with 80 µM of zinc permitted a good nutrients retention along with the best antioxidant performances.