Abstract
In order to develop new materials for the functional food, the components of safflower(Carthamus tinctorius L.) sprout was studied. Chemical composition, minerals, amino acids, and fatty acids of the leaf and the stem parts of 2 weeks grown safflower sprout were analyzed. The chemical composition of safflower spout was 12.7% (w/w) moisture, 28.5% crude protein, 10.1% crude fat, and 5.3% crude ash. Mineral contents of the leaf part were P 49%, K 22%, Mg 15%, Ca 10% whereas these of the stem part were K 51%, P 27%, S 10%, Ca 7%, Mg 4%. Other mineral contents were less than 2% in both parts. Especially, Pt was 0.18 ppb and 0.17 ppb in the leaf and the stem parts, respectively. The composition of the amino acid were approximately as follow, the major amino acid in the leaf and the stem were aspartic acid and glutamic acid, the contents of these were 10.7mg/g, 10mg/g in the leaf, 11.3 mg/g, 8.4 mg/g in the stem, respectively. The major fatty acids in the leaf and the stem parts were linoleic acid and $\alpha$-linolenic acid. The linoleic acid (C18:2) in the leaf and the stem parts were 67% (w/w) and 47% whereas the $\alpha$-linolenic acid. The linoleic acid (C18:2) in those parts were 14% (w/w) and 11%, respectively. On the basis of chemical analysis, the safflower sprout showed to have relatively high contents of crude protein and crude fat, minerals including small amount of Pt, polyunsaturated fatty acid as linoleic acid and $\alpha$ -linolenic acid. These results suggested that safflower sprout was found to be a useful material of natural health food for the functional food development.
