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BACKGROUND Sound waves are emerging as a potential biophysical alternative to traditional methods for enhancing plant growth and phytochemical contents. However, little information is available on the improvement of the concentration of functional metabolites like flavonoids in sprouts using sound waves. In this study, different frequencies of sound waves with short and long exposure times were applied to three important varieties to improve flavonoid content. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of sound waves on flavonoid content on the basis of biochemical and molecular characteristics. RESULTS We examined the effects of various sound wave treatments (250 Hz to 1.5 kHz) on flavonoid production in alfalfa (Medicago sativa), broccoli (Brassica oleracea) and red young radish (Raphanus sativus). The results showed that sound wave treatments differentially altered the total flavonoid contents depending upon the growth stages, species and frequency of and exposure time to sound waves. Sound wave treatments of alfalfa (250 Hz), broccoli sprouts (800 Hz) and red young radish sprouts (1 kHz) increased the total flavonoid content by 200%, 35% and 85%, respectively, in comparison with untreated control. Molecular analysis showed that sound waves induce the expression of genes of the flavonoid biosynthesis pathway, which positively corresponds to the flavonoid content. Moreover, the sound wave treatment significantly improves the antioxidant efficiency of sprouts. CONCLUSIONS The significant improvement of flavonoid content in sprouts with sound waves makes their use a potential and promising technology for the production of agriculture‐based functional foods. © 2019 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.

Preeclampsia (PE) is a pregnancy-specific hypertensive syndrome recognized as the leading cause of maternal and fetal morbidity and mortality worldwide. Painful blood-collection procedures or low accuracy of non-invasive approaches require faster, patient-friendly, and more sensitive diagnostic technologies. Here we report a painless, highly sensitive detection platform using nanoporous microneedles (nMNs) that enables rapid capture of biomarkers present at sub-nanogram levels. The highly porous nanostructures on the nMN surface were prepared by anodization of aluminum MN and then functionalized by immobilization of capture antibodies to detect target biomarkers based on an immunoassay method. The immuno-functionalized nMN array demonstrated rapid capture of an estrogen (E2) biomarker for PE following a 1-min incubation and exhibited a concentration-dependent change in fluorescence intensity over the E2 range of 0.5 ng mL−1 to 1000 ng mL−1 after treatment with fluorescence-detection antibodies. Remarkably, the nMN patch selectively detected sub-nanogram-levels of E2 in subcutaneous interstitial fluid from rats with increased diagnostic accuracy as compared with commercial immunoassay kits. This bio-functionalized nMN platform showed improved biosensing capability for multiple PE-related biomarkers, including hormones and proteins. Furthermore, this painless method demonstrated efficacy as a point-of-need diagnostic platform using portable smartphone-based fluorescence microscope to obtain fluorescence images of biomarker-captured nMN arrays.