Phenolic Compounds in Whole Grain Sorghum and Their Health Benefits

Abstract

Sorghum grain (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is a staple food grown across the globe, and is mainly cultivated in the semi-arid regions of Africa and Asia. Recently, sorghum grain is increasingly utilized for human consumption, due to the gluten-free nature and potential phenolic-induced health benefits. Sorghum grain is rich in bioactive phenolic compounds, such as ferulic acid, gallic acid, vanillic acid, luteolin, and apigenin, 3-deoxyanthocyanidins (3-DXA), which are known to provide many health benefits, including antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, anti-proliferative, anti-diabetic, and anti-atherogenic activities. Given an increasing trend of sorghum consumption for humans, this article reviews the content and profile of phenolics in sorghum. It covers aspects of their health benefits and explores their mechanisms of action. The impact of thermal processing, such as boiling, steaming, roasting, and extrusion on sorghum phenolics is also discussed. Compelling data suggest the biological functions of sorghum phenolics, however, further investigations appear warrant to clarify the gap in the current research, and identify promising research topics in future.

Concentration of Pro-Health Compound of Sorghum Grain-Based Foods

“…Sorghum is rich in bioactive phenolic compounds such as ferulic acid, gallic acid, and vanillic acid, which are known to provide many health benefits, including antioxidant anti-inflammatory effects. Given the growing trend in human consumption, sorghum is being used more and more often for the production of functional food [ 70 ].…”

Propiedades nutricionales, funcionales y bioactivas de alimentos a base de sorgo: Avances y oportunidades para su aprovechamiento integral

“…Las kafirinas representan del 70 al 80% de las proteínas totales en el grano y se dividen en α-Kafirinas (80%) que tienen un peso molecular de 25 a 23 kDa, β-Kafirinas (8 a 13%) con pesos moleculares de 16, 18, and 20 kDa, γ-Kafirinas (9 a 21%) con pesos moleculares entre 20 y 28 kDa y en menor proporción, δ-Kafirinas con un peso molecular de 13 kDa. Las kafirinas están estrechamente relacionadas con la calidad y digestibilidad del sorgo y los alimentos que se derivan de este cereal (Badigannavar et al, 2016;Li et al, 2018;Balandrán-Quintana et al, 2019;Castro-Jácome et al, 2020;Xu et al, 2021).…”

“…Además, el sorgo tiene un gran potencial para ser utilizado como ingrediente funcional en el desarrollo de nuevos productos por su alto contenido de fibra dietética y compuestos bioactivos (Tabla 2). La presencia de compuestos bioactivos en el sorgo otorgan beneficios a la salud relacionados con propiedades funcionales como la actividad antioxidante, antihipertensiva, antidiabética y antiobesidad, entre otras (Figura 5) (Taylor, et al, 2006;Awika, 2017;Xu et al, 2021).…”

Conversion sweet sorghum biomass to produce value-added products

“…In a previous study, widespread medical and food uses of bioactive compounds in grain and sweet sorghum varieties has been reviewed [ 16 ]. Xu et al [ 106 ] also reported that sorghum grain were rich in phenolic compounds, such as ferulic acid, gallic acid, etc. The concentration of p -coumaric and ferulic acids in stalk bark and pith of sweet sorghum were also measured, and stalk bark showed higher yields of p -coumaric and ferulic acids after alkaline hydrolysis at 170 ℃ [ 107 ].…”