Academic literature on the topic 'Quinoa sprouting'

Quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa Willd.) is a culturally significant staple food source that has been grown for thousands of years in South America. Due to its natural drought and salinity tolerance, quinoa has emerged as an agronomically important crop for production in marginal soils, in highly variable climates, and as part of diverse crop rotations. Primary areas of quinoa research have focused on improving resistance to abiotic stresses and disease, improving yields, and increasing nutrition. However, an evolving issue impacting quinoa seed end-use quality is preharvest sprouting (PHS), which is when seeds with little to no dormancy experience a rain event prior to harvest and sprout on the panicle. Far less is understood about the mechanisms that regulate quinoa seed dormancy and seed viability. This review will cover topics including seed dormancy, orthodox and unorthodox dormancy programs, desiccation sensitivity, environmental and hormonal mechanisms that regulate seed dormancy, and breeding and non-breeding strategies for enhancing resistance to PHS in quinoa.

AbstractPre-harvest sprouting (PHS) is a serious risk when adapting quinoa (Chenopodium quinoa) seed production to different temperate environments. Two quinoa accessions, ‘2-Want’ and ‘Chadmo’ were evaluated under field conditions in the Argentinean pampas over 2 years on five different sowing dates, to explore a range of climate conditions under which seed filling is manageable in this region. Both accessions exhibited dormancy during seed development and maturation under the conditions examined; however, dormancy expression was restricted to low temperatures in 2-Want, while seeds of Chadmo, originating from the humid island of Chiloe, southern Chile, expressed a high level of dormancy at all examined temperatures. Dormancy release was observed as a reduction in the lowest temperature permissible for seed germination, which broadened the optimal germination temperature window. Higher storage temperature increased the rate of dormancy release. The environment during seed development on the mother plant affected the levels and patterns of seed dormancy, with higher temperatures and longer photoperiods promoting dormancy. As dormancy was released before the next production period, the levels of dormancy observed in the accession would allow timely planting and uniform germination, while dormancy during seed maturation ensures the prevention of PHS. Chadmo showed deeper dormancy levels in all situations, compared with 2-Want, therefore greater PHS tolerance under various conditions in the pampas region can be expected for Chadmo, which makes this accession a better candidate to be included in adaptive breeding programmes for quinoa.

AbstractIn Chile, two quinoa ecotypes are grown: salares, also present in the highlands of Bolivia, and coastal, in central and southern areas of the country, at sea level. Genotypes from the coastal ecotype have characteristics that differentiate them from the most popular quinoa genotypes grown in the Andean Region of South America. The objectives of this study were: (1) to determine the cardinal temperatures for seed germination in quinoa genotypes from coastal and salares ecotypes cultivated in Chile, and (2) to study the presence of physiological dormancy (PD) in these genotypes. Seed germination from nine quinoa genotypes, two from salares and seven from coastal ecotypes, was evaluated in a gradient of temperatures between 11 and 42°C. Germination was also evaluated at 20°C at 0, 7 and 15 months from harvest. Results showed that seed from the nine genotypes germinated at their maximum percentage between 11 and 35°C. However, their faster germination occurred between 25 and 35°C. There was a significant difference between optimum temperature for germination between genotypes from coastal (28°C) and salares (30°C). An increase in germination rates after 7 months of storage suggested the presence of a non-deep PD in seeds from coastal ecotype, which may be useful to improve pre-harvest sprouting resistance in quinoa breeding programmes.

AbstractTwo possible sources of resistance to pre-harvest sprouting were evaluated in quinoa. They showed dormancy at harvest and significant variations in dormancy level in response to environmental conditions experienced during seed development. The aims of this work were to evaluate the importance of seed coats in the regulation of dormancy in this species, to investigate possible mechanisms of action and to assess association of seed coat properties with changes in dormancy level caused by the environment. Accessions Chadmo and 2-Want were grown under field conditions on different sowing dates during 2 years. Seed coats were manipulated and seed germination was evaluated at different temperatures. Seed coat perforation before incubation led to faster dormancy loss in both accessions. This effect decreased with delayed sowing date, and seeds expressed a level of dormancy not imposed by coats. This suggests the presence of embryo dormancy in the genus Chenopodium. Seeds of the accession 2-Want had a significantly thinner seed coat at later sowing dates, associated with a decreasing coat-imposed dormancy, but this pattern was not detected in Chadmo. The seed coat acts as a barrier to the release of endogenous abscisic acid (ABA) in quinoa, suggested by the increase in germination and a higher amount of ABA leached from perforated seeds. ABA is able to leach from seeds with an intact seed coat, suggesting that differences in seed coat thickness may allow the leakage of different amounts of ABA. This mechanism may contribute to the observed differences in dormancy level, either between sowing dates or between accessions.

In the present study, investigation of fourteen traditional and most commonly used Indian staple grain flour types (viz. wheat, white rice, processed little millet, maize, all-purpose/refined wheat flour, chickpea flour, toasted gram flour, little millet, quinoa, soybean, white millet, pearl millet, semolina/cream of wheat and finger millet) was undertaken for the assessment of 3 major bioactive aglycone forms of isoflavone (IF): daidzein (DI), glycitein (GY) and genistein (GN), with a special interest on the effect of sprouting on total and individual IF components. The obtained results showed that the content and composition of total IF were negligible among all the investigated flours except for soybean, wherein detectable total (227 mg kg-1) and individual IF (45, 129 and 53 mg kg-1 for DI, GY and GN respectively) components were observed. From soybean mature seeds to sprouts formation with ~80% germination rate at a pilot-scale, a 31% increase in total IF (298 mg kg-1), characterised by an individual and respective increment of 30% (58 mg kg-1), 25% (161 mg kg-1) and 48% (78 mg kg-1) in corresponding DI, GY and GN components, was observed. The current results demonstrated that for the Indian scenario, contribution of aforementioned grains, other than soybean in daily dietary intake of IF is negligible and sprouting represents an effective way to enhance the endogenous IF content.

Awareness of the several agronomic, environmental, and health benefits of quinoa has led to a constant increase in its production and consumption not only in South America - where it is a native crop – but also in Europe and the United States. However, producing cereal products enriched with quinoa alters some quality characteristics, including sensory acceptance. Indeed, several anti-nutritional factors, such as saponins, are concentrated in the grain pericarp. These bitter substances may interfere with the digestion and absorption of various food components. The most common of them are washing and pearling (applied separately or in combination); both have a direct effect on saponins, either by solubilisation and/or by the mechanical removal of seed layers. More recently fermentation have been proposed as a process able to mask the bitterness with aromatic compounds and/or sugar formation. Sprouting has been proposed as a suitable process to enhance the nutritional traits of grains, including quinoa. Whereas, there is a lack of information about sprouting effects on starch and protein features and their impact on the functional properties of quinoa seeds and the related flour. Moreover, the effectiveness of sprouting on decreasing the saponin content has never been demonstrated. The present work aimed at understanding the effects of sprouting on the molecular, functional and sensory properties of quinoa, in order to enhance the use of sprouted seeds or flour as a new ingredient in food formulation, with particular interest in bread-making applications. Whole quinoa was sprouted for 12, 24, 48 and 72 h at 22 °C and 90% of relative humidity and dried at 55 °C for 6 h. The development of amylases and proteases promoted changes in starch and protein features. After 48 h sprouting, starch granules were less effective in gelatinizing during heating, and less prompted to re-associate in a more ordered structure during cooling. As regards proteins, the process mostly affected albumin and globulin fractions and, once again, the main events were observed after 48 h of sprouting. Such molecular changes affected flour functionality, by: (1) decreasing the ability of absorbing and retaining water (as shown by WAI90 and WSI indices); (2) lowering syneresis during freeze-thawing; (3) decreasing foaming capacity but improving the stability of the foam. The sensory traits of quinoa were assessed by electronic tongue. Sprouting determined an increase in sourness in agreement with the increase in total titratable acidity and the decrease in pH. Interestingly, quinoa was perceived as less bitter after 48 h of sprouting, as the consequence of the decrease in saponin amount, determined by TLC or LC-HR-MS/MS, and confirming the decrease in foaming capacity as measured by the afrosimetric method. Substitution of wheat flour with flour from sprouted quinoa showed that 20% enrichment level was associated with a good gluten aggregation and the formation of dough able to maintain its structure during leavening and retain a high percentage of gas. These dough characteristics allow bread to reach the highest specific volume and the lowest crumb firmness up to three days of storage in comparison to 10% and 30% of substitution. The behavior of sprouted quinoa enriched-bread was compared with that of pearled quinoa-enriched bread at the same percentage (20%). Results showed that sprouting can be preferred to pearling, which is the most common pre-treatment for allowing the use of quinoa in bread-making. Indeed, sprouted quinoa-enriched bread showed the best results in terms of physical (volume, softness) and sensory (decrease in bitterness) traits.