Antioxidant and antiproliferation activities of winter cereal crops before and after germination

This study investigated the changes in antioxidant and antiproliferation activities of germinated winter cereal crops, including oats, barley, rye, and wheat, to develop functional materials. The highest total polyphenol content was found post-germination at 3.97 mg gallic acid equiv./g, which was 1.61-fold higher than the 2.46 mg gallic acid equiv./g in pre-germination barley. The flavonoid content was highly increased in wheat, which was 2.25-fold higher than 0.28 mg catechin equiv./g sample in pre-germination. The DPPH free radical scavenging activity (IC 50 ) was the greatest in the post-germination barley at 1.67 mg/mL. The highest ascorbic acid equivalent antioxidant capacity (7.43 mg AA eq/g sample) was obtained from post-germination barley, while its pre-germination capacity was 5.44 mg AA eq/g sample. The post-germination oats ethanol extract had a higher antiproliferation effect on HepG2 and HCT-116 cell lines than the pre-germination extract. The cell viability of the HepG2 and HCT-116 cell lines exposed to the post-germination oats was 19.98 and 11.81% at 3.0 mg/mL, respectively.