Effects of sprouting time on biochemical and nutritional qualities of Mungbean varieties

Effect of sprouting time (0, 24, 48, 72 and 96 h) on the biochemical and nutritional qualities of two mungbean varieties (Ramzan and NM-98) was investigated. Seeds of mungbean varieties were sprouted in laboratory under room conditions (25°C). Starting from the second day of germination, and every day, dishes of germinating seeds were removed, oven-dried, weighed and milled for proximate and chemical analysis. Vitamin C was determined in the fresh samples without drying. Results revealed that in proximate composition, sprouting resulted in increase of most of the parameters except fat and NFE, which were significantly reduced. Sprouting also resulted in almost linear increase in the concentration of vitamin C and protein contents. Phytic acid decreased from an initial average value of 1.88 to 0.33% with 96 h sprouting. It can be concluded that sprouting improved the nutritional worth of the mungbean in terms of higher concentration of nutrients, reduced phytic acid, improved protein content and ascorbic acid.   Key words: Mungbean, germination, proximate composition, phytic acid, ascorbic acid.