Health-promoting germinated rice and value-added foods: a comprehensive and systematic review of germination effects on brown rice

Abstract

Over the last 30 years, thousands of articles have appeared examining the effects of soaking and germinating brown rice (BR). Variable germination conditions and methods have been employed to measure different health-beneficial parameters in a diverse germplasm of BR. Research results may therefore appear inconsistent with occasional anomalies, and it may be difficult to reach consensus concerning expected trends. Herein, we amassed a comprehensive review on germinated brown rice (GBR), attempting to codify 133 peer-reviewed articles regarding the effects on 164 chemical parameters related to health and nutrition in BR and in value-added food products. The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA-2020) approach was used to direct the flow of the literature search. A pair-wise comparison t-test was performed to deliver an overall approach indicating when a given compound has been found to significantly increase or decrease through germination, which was grouped into GABA and polyamines, γ-Oryzanol and phytosterols, phenolic compounds, vitamins, proteins and amino acids, starchy carbohydrates, free sugars, lipids, minerals and phytic acid. This resource will stimulate interest in germinating rice and optimistically help increase both production and consumption of highly nutritious, health-beneficial rice with pigmented bran.

Keywords:

• γ-Aminobutyric acid
• oryzanols
• phenolics
• phytosterols
• protein
• vitamins

Disclosure statement

The Authors declare no conflicts of interest. This research received no external funding from funding agencies in the public, commercial, or not-for-profit sectors.

Disclaimer

The senior author’s USA Federal budget was a source of funding promoting the research. This work was also supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the project UIDB/04033/2020. This article is a USA Government work and is in the public domain in the USA. Mention of a trademark or proprietary product is for identification only and does not imply a guarantee or warranty of the product by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The U.S. Department of Agriculture prohibits discrimination in all its programs and activities on the basis of race, color, national origin, age, disability, and where applicable, sex, marital status, familial status, parental status, religion, sexual orientation, genetic information, political beliefs, reprisal, or because all or part of an individual’s income is derived from any public assistance program.

Data deposition

The complete data set is publicly available at: Mendeley Data, V2, at: https://data.mendeley.com/datasets/6ngk545s3k/2. doi: 10.17632/6ngk545s3k.2 (Beaulieu, Boue, and Goufo 2022b).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by FCT-Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia under the project UIDB/04033/2020.