The Effect of Germination Process on The Characteristics of Chia (Salvia hispanica L.) Seeds

: In recent years, the usage of chia ( Salvia hispanica L.) seeds has increased due to their high nutritional and medicinal value. This study was performed to shed some light on the effect of the germination process on the physicochemical characteristics, nutritional value and phytochemicals of the seedling. The effect of crowding of chia seeds during planting was also studied. The results display that the degree of crowding of seeds during germination for 5 days had no actual effect until crowding of 100 seeds/250 ml, as the degree of seed germination was affected after that by the degree of crowding. As for physical properties, chia sprouts had higher volume (7.54 cm 3 ), weight (2.69 g) and true density (2.80 g/cm 3 ), but smaller bulk density (0.34 g/ml) than those of seeds. The chia sprouts also contain higher moisture (13.18%), proteins (25.13%), ash (5.88%) and dietary fibers (21.17%) than those of the raw seeds. On the other hand, they contain lower crude fat (22.65%), nitrogen-free extract (12.04%) and total carbohydrates (33.24%). It is interesting to note that the biomass of the chia sprouts can provide the human body with different secondary metabolites and nutrients with low calories (352.48 Kcal/100 g) compared with the chia seeds.