Sprouts and microgreens have attracted tremendous interest across multiple disciplines in recent years. Here, we critically review the most recent advances to underscore research prospects and niches, and related challenges, not yet addressed or fully pursued. In particular, we report a number of themes that merit special attention as a result of their relevance to plant science, nutrition, health, and zootechnics: (1) species not yet or inadequately investigated, such as wild plants, and fruit tree strains; (2) abiotic and biotic factors, and biostimulants, for elicitation strategies and metabolic engineering; (3) sanitization and processing technologies to obtain high-quality products; (4) digestive fate and impact of bioactive elements, antinutrients, and allergens on human nutrition; (5) experimental challenges to researching health benefits; (6) the opportunity to generate natural product libraries for drug discovery; and (7) sprouts in animal feeding to improve both animal health and the nutritional value of animal products for the human diet. The convergence of different themes involving interdisciplinary competencies advocate fascinating research pursuits, for example, the elicitation of metabolic variants to generate natural product collections for identification and selection of bioactive chemicals with a role as nutraceuticals, key constituents of functional foods, or interactive partners of specific drugs.

https://www.mdpi.com/2073-4395/10/9/1424/pdf

Sprouts and Microgreens: Trends, Opportunities, and Horizons for Novel Research

Aqueous extracts from the selected hyperaccumulators used as soil additives significantly improve accumulation capacity of Solanum nigrum L. for Cd and Pb.

Abstract Purpose The use of plant extracts obtained from plants that are highly tolerant to heavy metal toxicity has been beneficial in improving the growth of plants grown under metal toxicity conditions. A lab experiment was performed to elucidate the alleviating role of foliar applied cadmium (Cd)-hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum ( S. nigrum ) extract on Datura innoxia ( D. innoxia ) plants grown under Cd stress (0, 50, and 100 mg Cd kg -1 soil). Methods Growth parameters, photosynthetic pigment content, osmo-metabolic compounds, reduced glutathione and phytochelatins content, oxidative damage, and lignin content and its related enzyme (cell wall-bound peroxidase, POX) were determined. Results Apart from the foliar application response of S. nigrum leaf extract (SNE) in either Cd exposed or non-Cd exposed plants, growth parameters of D. innoxia plant grown under both Cd concentrations (50 and 100 mg Cd kg -1 soil) in terms of root and shoot fresh, dry weight, length, and leaf area were noticeably diminished by 29 and 51%, 29 and 54%, 35 and 70%, 40 and 53%, 30 and 69%, 40 and 60%, and 11 and 23%, respectively, compared with untreated control plants. Foliar delivered SNE secured the photosynthetic pigment, free amino acids, soluble proteins, and soluble sugar content. Additionally, it lessened the adverse effects of Cd stress on D. innoxia plants by curtailing the content of hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) and malondialdehyde (MDA) by 28 and 27%, and 21 and 23%, respectively, compared with the plants subjected to 50 and 100 mg Cd kg -1 only. The findings herein indicated that the plant water extract and their interactions in the investigated Cd rates significantly augmented phenolics, alkaloids, reduced glutathione and phytochelatins content. Cell wall stiffening in D. innoxia indicated that lignin content and POX were significantly higher in plants exposed to 100 mg Cd kg -1 soil displaying increase values of 275 and 300%, respectively, against non-Cd treated control. The magnitude of increment imposed by Cd stress was lessened by using SNE that reflects on adequate cell growth advocated by limited lignification, in terms of lignin content, and downregulated POX activity. Owing to SNE application, root and leaves Cd contents were efficiently reduced reflecting apparent plant liveliness compared with the SNE non-treated Cd-stressed plants. Conclusions The outcomes of this study designate that foliar application of the Cd-hyperaccumulator S. nigrum leaf extract can be counted as an unconventional and innovative approach in the alleviation of Cd stress and can be employed as integrated practice when Cd-contaminated regions were exploited for sustainable agriculture of the multipurpose plants. 

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Attenuating Effect of an Extract of Cd-Hyperaccumulator Solanum nigrum on the Growth and Physio-chemical Changes of Datura innoxia Under Cd Stress

Introduction: Plants have always played a substantial role in the traditional medicine system worldwide. In India and other parts of theworld, Solanum Nigrum Linn. is one of the most promising and reliable sources of medicine in the traditional medicine system. It iswell known for its dynamic therapeutic properties. The concrete objective of selecting this plant is to consolidate its bioactive elementsand possibly medicinal qualities. So that future scientists and researchers may progress novel pharmaceuticals for pre-clinical andclinical trials, which could be launched as new targeted therapeutic options.Method: This review summarized the previous three decades' worth of scientific publications from online databases such as GoogleScholar, PubMed, ScienceDirect, Web of Science, and library books to assemble their possible phytopharmacological and therapeuticpotentials.Results: From the ongoing research database, S. Nigrum possesses a plethora of active phytoconstituents like glycoproteins,polysaccharides, polyphenolic compounds, and glycoalkaloids which are responsible for various pharmacological activities such asantioxidant, anticancer, antitumor, hepatoprotective, antidiabetic, and anti-asthmatic etc.Conclusion: This mystic herb has exhibited numerous ethnomedical properties in humans. Our research findings provide clear evidencethat S. Nigrum could be a potential natural source of several ailments and might be marketed as an alternative to contemporarymedicines. The stem, flower, root, and seed contain numerous dynamic bioactive constituents that are unexplored. Future researchershave an excellent opportunity to investigate them and elucidate their biomedical scientific activities and mechanisms in differentdiseases.

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Priyanka Narang

Papers

Phytochemical screening and metal binding studies on floral extract of Solanum nigrum