Impact of Soaking and Germination Time on Nutritional Composition and Antioxidant Activity of Nigella Sativa

Abstract

Indian traditional dishes make use of Nigella sativa seeds because of its distinctive aroma and taste but its application is restricted due to its pungent flavour which can be overcome by various methods of processing such as roasting, soaking, germination etc. Soaking and germination has a positive impact on the nutritional, sensorial and phytochemical attributes of Nigella sativa. The current study was carried out to standardize the optimum soaking and germination conditions with improved nutritional, sensorial and phytochemical attributes of seeds. Nigella sativa seeds were soaked for different time duration (0 hr, 6 hr, 12 hr and 18 hr) followed bygermination for0, 7, 9 and 11 days. The soaked and germinated samples were exposed to a temperature of 50ºC for drying till the constant moisture was obtained and analysed for various physiochemical, nutritional and sensory attributes. All the attributes under study were significantly affected by soaking and germination as compared to the control. Comparatively, except the moisture content all the phytochemicals and nutritional attributes decreased significantly from the control sample. Based on the qualitative attributes, soaking done for 18 hours along with 9th day of germination was observed to be the best and can be considered as the optimum condition to maintain the phytochemical to the safe level as well as reducing the antinutritional factors which can further be used for value addition.