Emerging Nutrient Rich Space Crop - Microgreens and their Health Benefits

Microgreens can be produced from the seeds of vegetables, herbs, grains including wild or ornamental species, having a brief species dependent production cycle of 1-3 weeks from seed germination. Sprouts are the newly germinated seed that are harvested just as a seed before their leaves develop whereas, microgreens grows from sprouts but they have leaves. An Asteraceae microgreen, such as chicory and lettuce, seems to be high in vitamin A, or carotenoid antioxidants. Microgreens are often referred to as more nutrient dense green vegetables, which means that they are more concentrated sources of vitamins and minerals and therefore, they contain high amounts of nutrients than the normal greens. Microgreens possess immense potential for improving the nutritional value of the human diet, considering their high content of healthy compounds like vitamins, carotenoids and antioxidants. Because of all these reasons, Scientists refers to microgreens as ?FUNCTIONAL FOOD? as they possess the ability to provide vital nutrients in a more practical way. Microgreens are also ideal for space flight environments and their freshness remains intact along with high quality. In this regards, microgreens can be considered phytochemical factory in the orbital flights for the reason that they can provide dietary needs suitable for the space travellers. A 2012 assessment of the vitamin and carotenoid concentration of 25 commercially available microgreens resulted that microgreens have higher concentration of vitamins and carotenoids than their mature plant counterparts. Microgreens are relatively easy to grow on a small scale in the presence of sunlight.