Background Microgreens are the young leafy greens of many vegetables, herbs, grains, and flowers with potential to promote human health and sustainably diversify the global food system. For successful further integration into the global food system and evaluation of their health impacts, it is critical to elucidate and optimize their nutritional quality. Objective We aimed to comprehensively evaluate the metabolite and mineral contents of six microgreens species, and the influence of maturity on their contents. Methods Plant species evaluated were from the Brassicaceae (arugula, broccoli, and red cabbage), Amaranthaceae (red beet and red amaranth), and Fabaceae (pea) plant families. Non-targeted metabolomics and ionomics analyses were performed to examine the metabolites and minerals, respectively, in each microgreen species and its mature counterpart. Results Non-targeted metabolomics analysis detected 3,321 compounds, 1,263 of which were annotated and included nutrients and bioactive compounds. Ionomics analysis detected and quantified 26 minerals including macrominerals, trace minerals, ultratrace minerals, and other metals. Principal component analysis indicated microgreens have distinct metabolite and mineral profiles compared with one another and with their mature counterparts. Several compounds were higher (p < 0.05; fold change ≥ 2) in microgreens compared to their mature counterpart, while some were unchanged or lower. In many cases, compounds that were higher in microgreens compared to the mature counterpart were also unique to that microgreen species. Conclusions These data provide evidence for the nutritional quality of microgreens, and can inform future research and development aimed at characterizing and optimizing microgreen nutritional quality and health impacts.
Microgreens are an emerging functional food crop with promise for sustainably diversifying global food systems, facilitating adaptations to urbanization and global climate change, and promoting human health. Previous work suggests microgreens have high nutritional quality, low environmental impacts, and broad consumer acceptance. For better reception into the global food system and increased per capita consumption, research is needed to elucidate consumer acceptance of various microgreens species, including factors contributing to their acceptance or lack thereof. Using a consumer panel (n = 99), this study evaluated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens species received high mean liking scores for acceptability by consumers (means ranged from highly acceptable to slightly acceptable), with more distinct differences across microgreens species for flavor and overall acceptability, which appeared to be driven by specific sensory properties. Data from principal component analysis demonstrated that high acceptability scores were associated with higher intent to purchase microgreens and negatively associated with food neophobia. Participants indicated that factors such as knowledge and familiarity of microgreens, cost, access/availability, freshness/shelf life, among other factors, influence their intention to purchase microgreens. These findings suggest that further integration of microgreens into the global food system will be met with high consumer acceptability, but needs to be aligned with enhanced consumer education regarding microgreens, as well as considerations of cost, availability/access, and freshness/shelf life.Practical Application: Researchers investigated consumer sensory perception and acceptability of six microgreens species (arugula, broccoli, bull's blood beet, red cabbage, red garnet amaranth, and tendril pea), and potential drivers and barriers to consumer acceptance. All microgreens tested had high consumer acceptability, but certain factors such as sensory perception and food neophobia impacted their acceptability. Additionally, participants indicated that factors such as knowledge, access and availability, cost, freshness, and shelf life may impact the purchasing of microgreens and thus are important factors to consider for further integration of this emerging functional food crop into the global food system.
An experiment was performed with commercial and noncommercial Trichoderma harzianum strains to test whether they have any effect on the growth of tomato seedlings. The tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill. cv. 'Caruso') seedlings were grown in a greenhouse and watered daily by hand. 18-day old seedlings were inoculated with Trichoderma harzianum strains Plantshield TM , T22, and T95 (10 7 conidia plus mycelial fragments/ml) and transplanted into plastic pots filled with Pro-Mix TM potting mix. Randomized complete block design was used and treatments were replicated three times. At six weeks, the seedlings were sampled for growth comparisons on seedling emergence, number of true leaves, fresh and dry weights of roots and shoots, stem caliper and shoot height. The data were subjected to ANOVA and the means tested by LSD. The results demonstrated that Trichoderma harzianum strains improved tomato seedling growth. There were differences between the untreated control and the treatments for all of the growth parameters at 4 weeks after inoculation with the exception of root fresh and dry weight.
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