Broccoli Sprouts - History

History

While health-conscious people in the 1970s embraced raw sprouts as a dietary staple, it was not until the 1990s that broccoli sprouts became the mainstream. This is because in 1992 a team of Johns Hopkins University scientists isolated a cancer-fighting phytochemical in broccoli called glucoraphanin, which is the glucosinolate precursor of sulforaphane (SGS). When chewed, broccoli releases glucoraphanin and myrosinase, an enzyme found in another part of the plant cell, which work together to produce sulforaphane, which, in turn, activates a transcription factor, Nrf2 in the cell. Once activated, Nrf2 then translocates to the nucleus of the cell, where it aligns itself with the antioxidant response element (ARE) in the promoter region of target genes. The target genes are associated with process which assists in regulating cellular defences. Such cytoprotective genes include that for glutathione. Around 200 genes have been well-characterised, as many as 1700 are thought to be related to this aspect of cellular defense.

The 1992 study was followed by the discovery in 1997 that glucoraphanin is in higher concentrations in the three- to four-day-old broccoli sprouts, at least 20 times the concentration of full grown broccoli. This discovery was written about in the New York Times, and created a global shortage of broccoli seed that could not meet the sudden high demand.