ASBMB Annual Meeting

Mining millets

The bioactive potential of ancient grains
Nicole Lynn
March 23, 2024

Millets are ancient grains and cereals with origins in Africa, the Middle East and Asian countries including China and India, where they are food staples. In addition to growing in harsh environments and enduring drought or attacks by pests, millets are often less processed and yield higher nutritional benefits than grains such as corn, rice and wheat.

Photo of a bowl of little millet
University of Illinois at Chicago
A bowl of little millet, one of the five grains profiled in this study, before oil and lipid extraction.

Those conventional grains of the Western diet are well studied, but scientists know little about the bioactive food species in major and minor millets, including the distribution of lipids, or fat-soluble compounds; the composition of fatty acids, or lipid building blocks; and the presence of nutraceuticals, or substances in millets and food that benefit physiological health.

Sugasini Dhavamani, a research assistant professor at the University of Illinois at Chicago, and her team have studied the nutri-lipidomic profiles of major and minor millet seeds and oils.

“I am passionate about lipid research,” Dhavamani said, “I love working at the University of Illinois because we have amazing equipment and facilities, and great means for collaboration.”

The oils of grains are not commercially available, so the researchers first extracted lipids from the millets, then analyzed samples using high-performance liquid chromatography and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry.

“The oil extraction takes time,” Dhavamani said, adding that the researchers face other challenges. “After extraction we often get a low quantity of lipids, which can also cause difficulty. Stability is a concern because the lipids are easily oxidized.”

University of Illinois at Chicago
Sugasini Dhavamani in her lab at the University of Illinois at Chicago, processing and analyzing gas chromatography–mass spectrometry data obtained from the millet seeds and oils.

After profiling sorghum millet, little millet, finger millet, proso millet, kodo millet, pearl millet and foxtail millet, Dhavamani and colleagues found that oleic acid, linoleic acid and alpha-linoleic acid, or omega-9,-6 and -3, are the three major fatty acid species present in millets and seed oils.

“Most of the millets evaluated contained omega-9 and omega-6 and a small amount of omega-3 fatty acids, which help to lower cholesterol and blood pressure levels, and can benefit chronic disease,” Dhavamani said. “Millets also have nutraceuticals, which are helpful for lowering inflammation.”

In the future, the researchers want to expand this work into animal models, where Dhavamani can assess the health benefits of millet consumption, followed by examining proteomics and metabolomics of millets; however, experiments of this scale require increased funding.

Details

Sugasini Dhavamani will present this research from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. CDT on Sunday, March 24, at Discover BMB 2024, the American Society for Biochemistry and Molecular Biology annual meeting in San Antonio. Her poster will be at board 326.

Abstract title: Nutri-lipidomics, bioactive lipids and antioxidant potential of major and minor millet seed and oil — a novel approach

Enjoy reading ASBMB Today?

Become a member to receive the print edition four times a year and the digital edition weekly.

Learn more
Nicole Lynn

Nicole Lynn holds a Ph.D. from UCLA and is an ASBMB Today volunteer contributor.

Get the latest from ASBMB Today

Enter your email address, and we’ll send you a weekly email with recent articles, interviews and more.

Latest in Science

Science highlights or most popular articles

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins
Award

Computational and biophysical approaches to disordered proteins

Nov. 14, 2024

Rohit Pappu will receive the 2025 DeLano Award for Computational Biosciences at the ASBMB Annual Meeting, April 12-15 in Chicago.

From lab to land: Crop modifications are fortifying our food supply against climate change
News

From lab to land: Crop modifications are fortifying our food supply against climate change

Nov. 13, 2024

Scientists explore genetic and biochemical innovations fueling future-proofing agriculture

Join the pioneers of ferroptosis at cell death conference
In-person Conference

Join the pioneers of ferroptosis at cell death conference

Nov. 13, 2024

Meet Brent Stockwell, Xuejun Jiang and Jin Ye — the co-chairs of the ASBMB’s 2025 meeting on metabolic cross talk and biochemical homeostasis research.

How antioxidant-enhanced ice cream is changing the game for frozen treats
News

How antioxidant-enhanced ice cream is changing the game for frozen treats

Nov. 12, 2024

University of Wisconsin scientists create a sweet treat with more nutrients and better stability using tannins

Helping underrepresented scientists feel seen
Award

Helping underrepresented scientists feel seen

Nov. 12, 2024

Benjamin Garcia will receive the ASBMB Ruth Kirschstein Diversity in Science Award at the ASBMB Annual meeting, April 12–15 in Chicago.

Plants get a GMO glow-up
News

Plants get a GMO glow-up

Nov. 10, 2024

Lose the prickles. Add bioluminescence. Up the nutrients without the bitter flavor. CRISPR gene editing is opening a new world of genetically modified plants for home growers.