Phenol content in sprouted grains

Cereal grains contain a myriad of phenolic compounds, including alk(en)ylresorcinols, avenanthramides, flavonoids, hydroxycinnamic and other phenolic acids, lignans, lignins, simple phenols, phenolamides, condensed tannins, and tocopherols. When consumed in human diets, many phenolic compounds could exert beneficial health effects. However, potential human health benefits of phenolic compounds strongly depend on their individual chemical structures and resulting physicochemical properties. Therefore, for a given cereal-based ingredient, both the qualitative phenolic profile and the content of individual compounds are relevant for human health and ingredient stability considerations, and processing techniques that change the phenolic profile or content are intriguing. This chapter will describe the different kinds of phenolic compounds found in grains and pseudocereals, their location and function in grains, the challenges inherent to accurately quantifying phenolic compounds in cereals, and the effect of sprouting on the grains’ phenolic profiles and concentrations.