Comparative study on the bioactive components and in vitro biological activities of three green seedlings.

To explore functional food ingredients from green seedlings, the bioactive components (phenolic compounds and γ-aminobutyric acid) and antioxidant activities (DPPH radical scavenging ability, ABTS radical scavenging ability and reducing power) of three green seedlings, including coix seed seedling (CSS), highland barely seedling (HBS) and naked oats seedling (NOS) cultivars were respectively measured and deeply compared. Results indicated that CSS showed the highest contents of the total polyphenol (183.35 mg/100 g), total flavonoid (348.68 mg/100 g), and γ-aminobutyric acid (54.17 mg/100 g). As expected, CSS also exerted the highest level of antioxidant activity, followed by HBS and NOS. Moreover, CSS possessed the potential of stimulating immune responses, including promoting proliferation and strengthening phagocytosis function of RAW264.7 cells. Taken together, all results suggested that the three green seedlings, especially CSS could be used as natural ingredients for functional food.
Competing Interests: Declaration of Competing Interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper.
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