There is a long history of using fermentation in food production. Edible seeds, such as certain beans and cereal grains, are important in the human diet and provide many health benefits. Various microbes, such as lactic acid bacteria, molds, and yeasts, considered as generally recognized as safe (GRAS) microbes, are commonly used to ferment edible seeds and their products. Fermentation can change bioactive components and produce new bioactivities. In order to highlight the importance of fermentation on bioactive components and bioactivities in edible seeds, this review, therefore, summarizes recent relevant studies and discusses fermentation procedures and influences of fermentation on their bioactive components and bioactivities. Overall, fermented edible seeds and their products contain enhanced bioactive components, especially γ-aminobutyric acid and natural phenolics, and they possess versatile bioactivities, such as antioxidant and anti-cancer effects, and, therefore, can be recommended as an important part of the human diet, or they can be developed into functional foods to help in the prevention of certain chronic diseases.
Keywords: anti-cancer effect; anti-hypertensive effect; antioxidant effect; beans; bioactive peptides; cereal grains; fermentation; natural phenolics; vitamins; γ-aminobutyric acid.
© 2017 Institute of Food Technologists®.