Introduction The concept of functional foods enriched with bioactive compounds, including polyphenols, flavonoids, and antioxidants, encompassing a diverse array of dietary items that extend beyond basic nutrition to confer specific health benefits, has received increasing attention in contemporary nutrition science. The study evaluated the effects of different LED light treatments on the morphological traits, pigment composition, antioxidant potential, and polyphenolic profile of pea microgreens and sprouts. Methods Pea sprouts and microgreens were grown under different LED light spectra (blue, red, blue–red, cool white and darkness) in controlled growth chamber conditions, followed by evaluation of morphological parameters, photosynthetic pigments, antioxidant activity, and phenolic composition. Photosynthetic pigments were determined spectrophotometrically, total phenolics and flavonoids were analyzed using Folin–Ciocalteu and AlCl₃ assays, antioxidant capacity was evaluated by the DPPH method and phenolic profiling was performed using HPLC-DAD analysis. Results and conclusion Results indicated substantial differences in fresh weight (FW) and dry weight content (%DW) under various light conditions. The highest growth was observed under blue-red (BR) light in sprouts and blue (B) light in microgreens (0.169 and 0.291 g FW, respectively). In sprouts, these responses are likely associated with light-induced photomorphogenic processes rather than fully developed photosynthetic activity, while microgreens, which possess functional chloroplasts, respond directly through photosynthesis. Cool white (CW) light resulted in the highest %DW in both growth stages (10.197% in sprouts and 11.651% in microgreens). Pigment content analysis showed that total chlorophyll concentrations were highest under BR light in both sprouts and microgreens (0.912 and 9.257 mg/g DW), with microgreens exhibiting elevated pigment levels overall. The total phenolic content (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) varied across treatments, with the highest TPC value under blue light in sprouts (5.869 mg GAE/g DW) and CW light in microgreens (7.531 mg GAE/g DW). TFC was highest under BR light for both developmental stages (1.046 and 1.759 mg QE/g DW). Antioxidant capacity, measured by DPPH radical scavenging activity, indicated that CW and blue light promoted the strongest antioxidant potential in both sprouts and microgreens. Analysis of phenolic compounds revealed substantial variability, with gallic acid and epicatechin being dominant under different light treatments. Exploratory molecular docking analysis indicated that rosmarinic acid has the highest predicted binding affinity for xanthine oxidase among the tested compounds, suggesting that experimental validation of these hypothesis-generating findings is needed. Overall, the results indicate that specific LED light treatments significantly influence the growth characteristics and biochemical properties of pea sprouts and microgreens.
Pavlović et al. (Thu,) studied this question.