Danilcenko H., Taraseviciene Z., Jariene E., Gajewski M., Szymczak P., Seroczyńska A.

In this work the chemical composition, mineral constituents, amino acids profile, fatty acids composition of radish and alfalfa seeds were studied in order to evaluate their nutrition value in response to germination time. Radish and alfalfa seeds were germinated for 1, 3 and 5 days in the dark, at the temperature of 25° C. Seeds germination caused the decrease in dry matter content. The moisture content of raw radish seeds was 6.45%, alfalfa seeds - 8.20% , while in five days germinated radish seeds - 85.34% and in alfalfa sprouts - 90.36%. During germination crude proteins content showed the tendency to increase, while crude fats - to decrease. After germination, content of eight amino acids decreases in radish sprouts, as well as in alfalfa sprouts. After germination of radish seeds threonine, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, alanine, leucine, lysine and arginine contents decreased while in alfalfa tyrosine, threonine, serine, glutamic acid, glycine, leucine, lysine and arginine decreased. Fatty acids composition during seeds germination changed slightly. The biggest decreasing tendency during 5 germination days of alfalfa seeds was observed in case of linolenic fatty acid (C 18:3) - by 5.15%, and oleic (C 18:1) - by 0.51%. In radish seeds, amount of linolenic fatty acid (C 18:3) increased by 1.56%, and of linoleic acids (C 18:2) - by 1.67%. Total carotenoids and ß-carotene content in radish sprouts after 3 days of germination was very high (2.31 and 0.61 mg×100g-1, respectively) and several times higher than in alfalfa sprouts.

Key words: biochemical changes, germination, nutrition value, seeds, sprout