Germination: a means to improve the functionality of oat

Abstract

The biochemical and physiological reactions of germination have long been utilised to produce barley malt for brewing and other purposes. Also some oat malt has been produced as raw-material of ale and stout production. The main goals of malting have been the degradation of grain storage components to soften the kernel structure, synthesis of amylolytic enzymes and production of nutrients for brewing yeast. Also flavour and colour attributes have been important. During the recent years interest has arisen also in the secondary metabolites produced during germination, which can have valuable health promoting properties and act as bioactive or functional compounds in foods. By using a tailored germination/malting process a desired combination of valuable properties may be obtained in germinating grains or seeds. All this requires knowledge and know-how of the germination process and the biochemistry behind it. This paper reviews the scientific knowledge about germination/malting of oat with special emphasis on changes in grain characteristics.

Nutritional advantages of oats and opportunities for its processing as value added foods - a review

“…Superheated steam processing of oat is found to be effective in deactivation of peroxidase in oat groats (Head et al 2010). Germination Germination of cereal seed has been used for centuries to soften the kernel structure, improve its nutritional value, reduce antinutritional effects and improve the functionality of oat seed proteins (Kaukovirta-Norja et al 2004). Skoglund et al (2008) reported an increase in avananthramide content of oat during germination.…”

Phenolic amides (avenanthramides) in oats - a review

“…Especially in oats, garmination has been reported to increase the bioavailability of the proteins due to the increase in the free amino acid content (Tian et al 2010). Several studies have shown an increase of approximately 20% in AVA content in oat grains following the germination process (Bryngelsson et al 2002;Kaukovirta-Norja et al 2004;Skoglund et al 2008;Hübner & Arendt 2013). This increase primarily occurred due to the activation of hydroxyanthranilate N-hyroxycinnamoyl transferase Figure 1.…”

Oat (<i>Avena sativa</i> L.): Oil and Nutriment Compounds Valorization for Potential Use in Industrial Applications

“…Moreover, reports have markedly studied starch and proteins degradation in the cereals endosperm during germination as it is implicated in malting and food industries 55 57 . However, there have been few reports on cereal lipid degradation during germination, and some studies have been concerned with only how oat oil processing can interfere in food industry 58 . Lehtinen et al.…”

“…59 demonstrated that some oat lipid fractions were susceptible to be normally used at high temperature. Also, Kaukovirta-Norja et al 58 noted that oat lipids stability and their prevention of off-flavour formation are effective in oat processing industry due to the fact that oat has a high lipid content and a high native lipolytic activity. Therefore, the oil mobilization in the cereals endosperm has not been well investigated.…”