Metabolic association of lipophilic pigments in the organs of soybean sprouts

Ten soybean sprout varieties were examined for the evaluation of variations in lipophilic pigments, chlorophyll a and b, lutein, and β-carotene in seeds, whole sprouts, cotyledons, and hypocotyls germinated for 5 days in darkness at 20°C with 80% humidity. Variations in lipophilic pigment contents caused a wide separation of each variety on a principal component analysis (PCA) scores plot, indicating that separation of varieties had wider lipophilic pigment responses from whole sprouts and cotyledons than those from seeds and hypocotyls. Hierarchical cluster analysis indicated that clusters of each organ from 10 varieties corresponded to PCA score plot results. Correlation analysis indicated that there were 4 positive correlations in both whole sprouts and cotyledons, but only 1 or none in hypocotyls and seeds. The responses of lipophilic pigments varied highly depending on variety and organ.