Therapeutic potential of medicinal plant sprouts: emerging opportunities and challenges in phytochemistry

Germination is a developmental stage in which plants accumulate higher levels of bioactive metabolites. However, this potential remains largely unexplored in medicinal herbs and therapeutic applications. Sprouting represents a brief yet metabolically dynamic phase in plant development, during which dormant seeds initiate enzymatic activation and begin synthesizing a range of bioactive compounds. Compared to dry seeds or mature plants, sprouts often contain higher levels of phenolics, flavonoids, vitamins, and other secondary metabolites, enhancing their nutritional and pharmacological value. While edible sprouts from food crops have been extensively studied, sprouts derived from medicinal plants remain largely overlooked. This is surprising given their natural richness in pharmacologically relevant phytochemicals. This perspective draws primarily on original experimental studies that investigated phytochemical and physiological changes during sprouting of medicinal plants. These studies were identified through searches in scientific databases using keywords related to medicinal plants, sprouts, and bioactive compounds. We summarize existing studies on species such as Trigonella foenum-graecum, Nigella sativa, Silybum marianum, Arctium lappa, Trifolium pratense, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis, and identify other promising candidates with high germination potential but uncharacterized phytochemical profiles at the sprout stage. Environmental variables, such as light quality, seed priming, or nutrient supplementation, can further modulate phytochemical composition during germination. We also discuss practical limitations, including low biomass yield, microbial safety concerns, and lack of standardized protocols. Overall, sprouts offer a responsive, scalable, and experimentally tractable model for exploring and optimizing phytochemical expression in medicinal plants. We propose that this early developmental window offers overlooked opportunities for phytopharmacology, functional foods, and natural product discovery.