Nutrient composition, oxalate content and nutritional ranking of ten culinary microgreens

Microgreens are emerging functional foods of the 21st century. Compositional data of essential nutrients and anti-nutrient for ten culinary microgreens belonging to eight botanical families are reported in the present study. Microgreens were analysed for protein, dietary fibre profile, ICP-OES based elemental profile and ascorbic acid. Alpha-tocopherol and beta-carotene were analysed using HPLC-DAD. Nutrient Quality Score (NQS 11.2) was computed based on eleven desirable nutrients and two nutrients to be limited and reported for the first time in microgreens. The microgreens were found to be moderate to good sources of protein, dietary fibre and essential elements. They were excellent sources of ascorbic acid, Vitamin E and beta-carotene (pro-vitamin A), meeting 28-116 %, 28-332 %, and 24-72 % of reference daily intake of the respective vitamins. The study revealed low levels of oxalate, an anti-nutrient, in microgreens. Based on NQS 11.2, radish microgreens were found to be the most nutrient dense, followed by French basil and roselle microgreens. Least nutrient-dense microgreens were fenugreek and onion. The NQS 11.2 showed that all microgreens are 2-3.5 times more nutrient dense than spinach mature leaves cultivated under similar conditions. Overall, this study provided critical information useful in selecting microgreens for wholesome nutrition.