Investigating alterations of nutritional constituents, antioxidant abilities, and physicochemicals in aging processes of ginseng sprouts

This study was the first to document the fluctuations of nutritional constituents, antioxidant capacities, and physicochemical characteristics during the aging processes of red ginseng sprouts (RGS) and black ginseng sprouts (BGS) from dried ginseng sprouts (DGS). Total ginsenoside levels differed with 54.72 (DGS) → 57.15 (RGS) and 6.98 (BGS) mg/g, specifically, ginsenoside F2 and Rd2 in RGS remarkably increased with 1.97 → 5.88 and 2.41 → 5.49 mg/g, respectively. Phenolics increased dramatically as 297.02 → 1770.01 (6.0-fold); 1834.94 (6.2-fold) μg/g in DGS → RGS; BGS with abundance contents of benzoic acid (>15.3-fold), chlorogenic acid (>9.5-fold), and catechin (>4.2-fold), whereas amino acids markedly decreased (3686.81 → 1505.00; 364.64 mg/100 g), with arginine showing a significant decrease. Moreover, beneficial factors (total phenolic content: TPC; total flavonoid content: TFC; maillard reaction products: MRP) displayed increase tendencies (approximately 2.0-fold) with BGS > RGS > DGS, and antioxidant patterns significantly increased with potential capacities as follows: ABTS (48.3: DGS → 65.8: RGS; 70.2 %: BGS) > DPPH (18.5 → 44.6; 59.2 %) > hydroxyl (23.2 → 35.4; 39.9 %) > FRAP (0.6 → 1.8; 1.8 %) at 500 μg/mL. In particular, DNA protection exhibited excellent rates of 100 %, in the order of BGS (25 μg/mL) > RGS (50 μg/mL) > DGS (500 μg/mL). These findings suggest that processed ginseng sprouts can be excellent agents for natural antioxidants.