Evaluation of biological value of sprouts. I. Fat content, fatty acid composition.

Abstract

During our research work fatty acid content of the most important sprouts, wheat, lentil, alfalfa, radish and sun∞ower seed was investigated during the germination. It was found that both the satu- rated and unsaturated fatty acids hardly changed during the germination. The most important saturated fatty acid of the sprouts investigated by us is palmitic acid, amount of which hardly changed or even increased in the case of alfalfa sprout during germination. Oleic acid and linoleic acid were present in the highest concentration among the unsaturated fatty acids in the sprouts investigated. The concentration of oleic acid remained unchanged during the germination period, and the same ap- plies, except lentil, to linoleic acid in case of every sprouts examined. In the case of lentil sprout the concentration of oleic acid decreased while linoleic acid content increased signiflcantly. Based on our investigation it can be stated that most of the fatty acids hardly changed during the germination, and there was no veriflable tendency.