Survey of Health-Promoting Compounds in Seeds and Sprouts of Brassicaceae

The content of health-promoting compounds is becoming a strong instrumentfor evaluating the quality of plant-derived foods. For this purpose seeds and sprouts ofBrassicas and other two species have been analyzed and compared for ascorbic acid,total polyphenols, total carotenoids and glucosinolates content and antioxidantcapacity. A strong variability has been found in the glucosinolates profile. A decreasingtrend was detected from seeds to sprouts, while an increasing trend was detectedregarding total phenols. The antioxidant capacity generally resulted higher in sprouts,with some exception in seeds. Non-Brassica species showed a low amount in phytochemicals,while a significant correlation by simple regression was found between totalpolyphenols and antioxidant capacity.