Search for: [Abstract = "Cereals and cereal\-based foods have been recognized as one of the major constituents of a healthy diet. Their significance in human nutrition is best reflected in the position they occupy \(especially unrefined products\) at the bottom of the food pyramid. Pseudocereals, such as amaranth and quinoa that I examined, are poorly known in Poland. Research in amaranth \(Amaranthus cruentus\) and quinoa \(Chenopodium quinoa\), in Poland and worldwide, is rather scarce and mostly conducted by researchers from South America. It is due to the fact that these cereals have been the staple foods for the people of the continent for thousands of years, and thus, they have been of key importance to its successive civilizations. Neither amaranth nor quinoa is classified as true cereal in taxonomy, since they belong to the class of dicotyledons, unlike true cereals which are classified as monocotyledons. In accordance with the available data, seeds of amaranth and quinoa have high nutritional values, which are attributed to higher contents of proteins \(including essential amino acids\) than those of wheat, rye, and oat seeds, and some unsuturated fatty acids. In\-vitro tests in pseudocereals were aimed at assessing the antioxidant potential of their seeds and very little known sprouts as an example of the so called new vegetables. In\-vitro tests were carried out by three methods\: FRAP, ABTS and DPPH and made it possible to measure the antioxidative activity in seeds and sprouts of amaranth and quinoa. In\-vitro testing also led to significant improvement in the methods of sprouts cultivation and allowed for finding the optimal tillage conditions \(depending on the amount of light\) and its length so that sprouts with the highest antioxidant contents can be cultivated. Comparision of the antioxidative activity suggests that antioxidants in quinoa and amaranth differ both in quality and quantity. Quinoa seeds were higher in fast\-acting antioxidants \(much better results by DPPH were observed for quinoa than amaranth\) such as e.g. polyphenols, whose total contents in quinoa were higher than in other seeds. It has also been confirmed by the positive correlation between the total contents of polyphenols in investigated seeds and their antioxidative activity. Contrary to seeds, amaranth sprouts had higher antioxidative activity than quinoa sprouts – a result confirmed by all analytical methods employed. Tests by DPPH showed the greatest differences, which may indicate that amaranth sprouts contained new, fast\-acting antioxidative substances other than polyphenols, as their total content was still higher in amaranth sprouts. In amaranth sprouts, especially in amaranth v. Aztek, the level of anthocyanins increased significantly. The synthesis of antioxidants in sprouts \(such as e.g. ascorbic acid and tocopheroles which were not investigated in this study\) could have been significantly enhanced by light. In vitro testing allowed to determine which chemical substances contribute to antioxidative activity of these foods. Spectrophotometric methods were employed to measure the total contents of anthocyanins and polyphenols. Qualitative and quantitative analysis of flavonoids and phenolic acids was carried out by the HPLC\/DAD method. Total contents of investigated phenolic acids in seeds and sprouts of quinoa were higher than in amaranth. The main phenolic acid fund in seeds and sprouts of all plant materials was gallic acid, with higher concentrations in seeds and sprouts of amaranth than in quinoa. Moreover, the following acids were found in the seed materials\: p\-hydroksybenzoic acid, vanillic acid, p\-coumaric acid, caffeic acid, and cinnamic acid\; whereas, p\-coumaric acid, ferulic acid and syringic acid were found in sprouts. Quinoa seeds were several times higher in flavonoids than amaranth seeds. Seeds of quinoa contained\: rutin, orientin, vitexin, morin and traces of hesperidin and neohesperidin. No flavonoids were detected in the seeds of amaranth v."]

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