Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research
Sprouts and microgreens have attracted tremendous interest across multiple disciplines in recent years. Here, we critically review the most recent advances to underscore research prospects and niches, and related challenges, not yet addressed or fully pursued. In particular, we report a number of th...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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MDPI AG
2020-09-01
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| Series: | Agronomy |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/9/1424 |
| _version_ | 1797553251443277824 |
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| author | Angelica Galieni Beatrice Falcinelli Fabio Stagnari Alessandro Datti Paolo Benincasa |
| author_facet | Angelica Galieni Beatrice Falcinelli Fabio Stagnari Alessandro Datti Paolo Benincasa |
| author_sort | Angelica Galieni |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | Sprouts and microgreens have attracted tremendous interest across multiple disciplines in recent years. Here, we critically review the most recent advances to underscore research prospects and niches, and related challenges, not yet addressed or fully pursued. In particular, we report a number of themes that merit special attention as a result of their relevance to plant science, nutrition, health, and zootechnics: (1) species not yet or inadequately investigated, such as wild plants, and fruit tree strains; (2) abiotic and biotic factors, and biostimulants, for elicitation strategies and metabolic engineering; (3) sanitization and processing technologies to obtain high-quality products; (4) digestive fate and impact of bioactive elements, antinutrients, and allergens on human nutrition; (5) experimental challenges to researching health benefits; (6) the opportunity to generate natural product libraries for drug discovery; and (7) sprouts in animal feeding to improve both animal health and the nutritional value of animal products for the human diet. The convergence of different themes involving interdisciplinary competencies advocate fascinating research pursuits, for example, the elicitation of metabolic variants to generate natural product collections for identification and selection of bioactive chemicals with a role as nutraceuticals, key constituents of functional foods, or interactive partners of specific drugs. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:12:45Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-91c2cc1277ef455a8940379558b9a004 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2073-4395 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-10T16:12:45Z |
| publishDate | 2020-09-01 |
| publisher | MDPI AG |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Agronomy |
| spelling | doaj.art-91c2cc1277ef455a8940379558b9a0042023-11-20T14:19:19ZengMDPI AGAgronomy2073-43952020-09-01109142410.3390/agronomy10091424Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel ResearchAngelica Galieni0Beatrice Falcinelli1Fabio Stagnari2Alessandro Datti3Paolo Benincasa4Council for Agricultural Research and Economics, Research Centre for Vegetable and Ornamental Crops, Via Salaria 1, 63030 Monsampolo del Tronto (AP), ItalyDepartment of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, ItalyFaculty of Bioscience and Technologies for Food, Agriculture and Environment, University of Teramo, Campus Universitario di Coste Sant’Agostino, via R. Balzarini 1, 64100 Teramo, ItalyDepartment of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, ItalyDepartment of Agricultural, Food, and Environmental Sciences, University of Perugia, Borgo XX Giugno 74, 06121 Perugia, ItalySprouts and microgreens have attracted tremendous interest across multiple disciplines in recent years. Here, we critically review the most recent advances to underscore research prospects and niches, and related challenges, not yet addressed or fully pursued. In particular, we report a number of themes that merit special attention as a result of their relevance to plant science, nutrition, health, and zootechnics: (1) species not yet or inadequately investigated, such as wild plants, and fruit tree strains; (2) abiotic and biotic factors, and biostimulants, for elicitation strategies and metabolic engineering; (3) sanitization and processing technologies to obtain high-quality products; (4) digestive fate and impact of bioactive elements, antinutrients, and allergens on human nutrition; (5) experimental challenges to researching health benefits; (6) the opportunity to generate natural product libraries for drug discovery; and (7) sprouts in animal feeding to improve both animal health and the nutritional value of animal products for the human diet. The convergence of different themes involving interdisciplinary competencies advocate fascinating research pursuits, for example, the elicitation of metabolic variants to generate natural product collections for identification and selection of bioactive chemicals with a role as nutraceuticals, key constituents of functional foods, or interactive partners of specific drugs.https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/9/1424plantelicitationpost-harvestfood safetyhuman nutritionfunctional foods |
| spellingShingle | Angelica Galieni Beatrice Falcinelli Fabio Stagnari Alessandro Datti Paolo Benincasa Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research Agronomy plant elicitation post-harvest food safety human nutrition functional foods |
| title | Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research |
| title_full | Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research |
| title_fullStr | Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research |
| title_full_unstemmed | Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research |
| title_short | Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research |
| title_sort | sprouts and microgreens trends opportunities and horizons for novel research |
| topic | plant elicitation post-harvest food safety human nutrition functional foods |
| url | https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/9/1424 |
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