Sprouted seeds and malt

Category: Food

Type

Voluntary

Introduction and description

Beans, grains and so on, are in essence all seeds and if you soak them in sterilised water, they will sprout.

Not all sprouted seeds are good for you or even edible, but sprouting in some cases produces a different food product, where the starches become sugars and where minerals and other vitamins are released or produced. Thus a sprouted seed is a type of food all in its own right.

We are perhaps most familiar with the sprouted mung bean used in Chinese cooking – the bean sprout – and supermarkets have also begun to stock alfalfa sprouted seeds for salads, but it is important that we don't overlook one of the oldest form of sprouted seed used in foods and that is the sprouting of grains to produce malt.

The Malting Process

Malt is germinated cereal grains that have been dried in a process known as "malting". The grains are made to germinate by soaking in water, and are then halted from germinating further by drying with hot air.

Malting grains develop the enzymes required to modify the grain's starches into sugars. It also develops other enzymes, such as proteases, which break down the proteins in the grain into forms that can be used by yeast. Malt also contains small amounts of other sugars, such as sucrose and fructose, which are not products of starch modification but were already in the grain.

It should not be forgotten that malted grain is used to make beer, whisky, malted shakes, malt vinegar, confections such as Maltesers , drinks such as Horlicks, Ovaltine and Milo, and some baked goods, such as fruit malt loaf.

The negatives of sprouted seeds

Although there is great enthusiasm for the benefits of sprouted seeds, we need to look at this objectively.  A plant prolongs its existence using seed and thus it is quite likely to provide protective mechanisms in the seed once it has sprouted. 

Before this has happened, it may encourage animals and birds to eat the fruit or seeds in order to start the process of growth going and to move the seed elsewhere - thus ensuring no competition from its progeny.   But once it has started to sprout, there may be additional chemical changes that take place that protect the 'sproutling'. 

Kidney beans and millet, for example, are protected by cyanide once they have sprouted.  In the following, an autoclave is a pressure chamber used to sterilize equipment and supplies by subjecting them to high pressure saturated steam:

reduced it but didn't remove it.

The other strategy that plants appear to have for protecting their young is to develop a symbiotic relationship with bacteria. 

One of these bacteria is the E coli bacteria and there have been a host of outbreaks of food poisoning caused by this bacteria, attributed to the manufacturers, but actually a feature of the plant's own protective mechanism:

Malting

Malt is produced principally from barley, and barley when it sprouts produces hordenine.   Hordenine is found in the sprouted seeds of barley (Hordeum vulgare) (~ 0.2%, or 2000 μg/g), proso millet (Panicum miliaceum) (~ 0.2%), and sorghum (Sorghum vulgare) (~0.1%).  

Hordenine is classified as an antifeedant.  An Antifeedant is "a naturally occurring substance in certain plants which adversely affects insects or other animals which eat them".[OED]

So where does that leave the malt producers?  The answer, it appears depends on how you malt the seeds.  It also shows why malting is such a specialised skill.  

 

In effect, the amounts are dependent on light levels, length of sprouting and whether one takes the entire plant or just the roots into account.

 

 

Method

Eat the sprouted seeds raw in salads, stir fry them and use the malt in cooking. Drink the whisky and beer in moderation.  Use the malt in Fruit malt loaf.

But do not assume all sprouted seeds are good to eat.  

Nutrients

As long as the process of extracting the malt has been a safe one, and the seeds themselves are safe once sprouted, then the rewards are significant.  Malt and sprouted seeds are an almost complete food containing minerals, vitamins and amino acids.  In some cases all the amino acids.

USDA National nutrient database:  Full Report (All Nutrients):  19352, Syrups, malt

Nutrient	Unit	Value per 100g
Water	g	21.10
Energy	kcal	318
Energy	kJ	1331
Protein	g	6.20
Total lipid (fat)	g	0.00
Ash	g	1.30
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	71.30
Fiber, total dietary	g	0.0
Sugars, total	g	71.30
MINERALS
Calcium, Ca	mg	61
Iron, Fe	mg	0.96
Magnesium, Mg	mg	72
Phosphorus, P	mg	236
Potassium, K	mg	320
Sodium, Na	mg	35
Zinc, Zn	mg	0.14
Copper, Cu	mg	0.200
Manganese, Mn	mg	0.100
Selenium, Se	µg	12.3
VITAMINS
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	0.0
Thiamin	mg	0.011
Riboflavin	mg	0.393
Niacin	mg	8.120
Pantothenic acid	mg	0.171
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.500
Folate, total	µg	12
Folic acid	µg	0
Folate, food	µg	12
Folate, DFE	µg	12
Vitamin B-12	µg	0.00
Vitamin B-12, added	µg	0.00
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	0
Retinol	µg	0
Vitamin A, IU	IU	0
FATTY ACIDS
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	0.000
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.000
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	0.000
AMINO ACIDS
Tryptophan	g	0.075
Threonine	g	0.208
Isoleucine	g	0.210
Leucine	g	0.378
Lysine	g	0.267
Methionine	g	0.110
Cystine	g	0.065
Phenylalanine	g	0.260
Tyrosine	g	0.169
Valine	g	0.304
Arginine	g	0.283
Histidine	g	0.132
Alanine	g	0.271
Aspartic acid	g	0.558
Glutamic acid	g	1.006
Glycine	g	0.252
Proline	g	0.459
Serine	g	0.232

Full Report (All Nutrients):  11043, Mung beans, mature seeds, sprouted, raw

 

NUTRIENT	Unit	Value per 100g
Water	g	90.40
Energy	kcal	30
Energy	kJ	126
Protein	g	3.04
Total lipid (fat)	g	0.18
Ash	g	0.44
Carbohydrate, by difference	g	5.94
Fiber, total dietary	g	1.8
Sugars, total	g	4.13
MINERALS
Calcium, Ca	mg	13
Iron, Fe	mg	0.91
Magnesium, Mg	mg	21
Phosphorus, P	mg	54
Potassium, K	mg	149
Sodium, Na	mg	6
Zinc, Zn	mg	0.41
Copper, Cu	mg	0.164
Manganese, Mn	mg	0.188
Selenium, Se	µg	0.6
VITAMINS
Vitamin C, total ascorbic acid	mg	13.2
Thiamin	mg	0.084
Riboflavin	mg	0.124
Niacin	mg	0.749
Pantothenic acid	mg	0.380
Vitamin B-6	mg	0.088
Folate, total	µg	61
Folate, DFE	µg	61
Choline, total	mg	14.4
Vitamin A, RAE	µg	1
Carotene, beta	µg	6
Carotene, alpha	µg	6
Cryptoxanthin, beta	µg	6
Vitamin A, IU	IU	21
Vitamin K (phylloquinone)	µg	33.0
FATTY ACIDS
Fatty acids, total saturated	g	0.046
Fatty acids, total monounsaturated	g	0.022
Fatty acids, total polyunsaturated	g	0.058
Fatty acids, total trans	g	0.000
AMINO ACIDS
Tryptophan	g	0.037
Threonine	g	0.078
Isoleucine	g	0.132
Leucine	g	0.175
Lysine	g	0.166
Methionine	g	0.034
Cystine	g	0.017
Phenylalanine	g	0.117
Tyrosine	g	0.052
Valine	g	0.130
Arginine	g	0.197
Histidine	g	0.070
Alanine	g	0.099
Aspartic acid	g	0.479
Glutamic acid	g	0.161
Glycine	g	0.063
Serine	g	0.033

References and further reading

J Food Prot. 2008 Apr;71(4):830-4.  Hot water treatments to inactivate Escherichia coli O157:H7 and Salmonella in mung bean seeds.  Bari ML1, Inatsu Y, Isobe S, Kawamoto S.  1National Food Research Institute, Kannondai-2-1-12, Tsukuba 305-8642, Japan. latiful@affrc.go.jp

 

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