Broccoli sprouts are considered functional food as they are naturally enriched in glucoraphanin (GR) that is the biological precursor of the anticancer compound sulforaphane (SFN). Due to its health promoting value, also broccoli sprout juice is becoming very popular.

The present study aimed to quantitatively assess the conversion of GR to its hydrolysis products, SFN and SFN-nitrile, during the juice preparation process. We demonstrated that SFN plus SFN-nitrile yield from glucoraphanin is quite low (≈25%) and that some SFN is lost during the juice preparation partially due to the spontaneous conversion to sulforaphane-amine or conjugation to GSH and proteins naturally present in the juice. Our results demonstrate that the detection of the sole SFN free form does not provide reliable information about the real concentration of this functional compound in the juice.

西兰花芽菜被认为是功能性食品，因为它们天然富含抗癌化合物萝卜硫烷（SFN）的生物前体糖尿素（GR）。由于其具有促进健康的价值，西兰花芽汁也变得非常受欢迎。

本研究旨在定量评估果汁制备过程中GR转化为其水解产物SFN和SFN腈的转化率。我们证明了葡甘露聚糖的SFN加SFN腈产率很低（≈25％），并且在果汁制备过程中损失了一些SFN，部分原因是自发转化为萝卜硫烷胺或与GSH结合以及果汁中天然存在的蛋白质。我们的结果表明，检测出唯一不含SFN的形式不能提供有关果汁中该功能性化合物实际浓度的可靠信息。