title: New approach to the fungal decontamination of wheat used for wheat sprouts: effects of aminolevulinic acid.
abstract: Nowadays, there is a growing interest in natural, minimally processed, nutritional and healthy foods. Sprouted seeds can be offered as natural nutritive products. Regrettably, existing seed decontamination technologies are limited and have specific disadvantages. 5-aminolevulinic acid (5-ALA) as a novel and effective tool for wheat decontamination from microfungi is proposed in this work. Inhibition of wheat with 5-ALA revealed a drastically suppressed development of microfungi. Studies of wheat germination characteristics showed that 5-ALA stimulates the growth of wheat seedlings and roots without impairing the vigor of germination and the viability of seeds. 5-ALA also induces either marginal or significant activities of antioxidant enzymes which can be associated with enhanced cellular capacity to detoxify reactive oxygen species. The results indicate that 5-ALA application may be an effective, environmentally friendly and inexpensive technology to be used in producing sprouts for human consumption.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Materials Science and Applied Research, Vilnius University, Sauletekio 10, Vilnius LT-10223, Lithuania. Zilvinas@bchi.lt
authors.forename: Zivile
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Luksiene
authors.forename: Honorata
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Danilcenko
authors.forename: Zivile
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Taraseviciene
authors.forename: Zilvinas
authors.initials: Z
authors.lastname: Anusevicius
authors.forename: Audrone
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Maroziene
authors.forename: Henrikas
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Nivinskas
mesh_terms: D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid / Q000494:pharmacology*; D003257:Consumer Product Safety; D005506:Food Contamination / Q000517:prevention & control*; D005658:Fungi / Q000187:drug effects* / Q000254:growth & development; D018525:Germination; D009753:Nutritive Value; D017319:Photosensitizing Agents / Q000494:pharmacology; D012639:Seeds / Q000201:enzymology / Q000382:microbiology; D014908:Triticum / Q000201:enzymology / Q000382:microbiology*
chemical_list: D017319:Photosensitizing Agents; D000622:Aminolevulinic Acid