Nutritional Components and Strong Antioxidant Components of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.)

This study employed conventional methods to systematically analyze the moisture, ash, total protein, fat, carbohydrate, minerals, vitamins B, amino acids, starch nutritional fractions, and bioactive components of finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.). The in vitro antioxidant activity of the bioactive components obtained using solvents of different polarities was evaluated, and the strong antioxidant components were identified using ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). The results showed that the contents of moisture, ash, protein, fat, and carbohydrates in finger millet were 10.06%, 1.92%, 12.98%, 1.67%, and 73.31%, respectively. Slowly digestible starch and resistant starch totally accounted for 83.87% of the total starch. Finger millet was rich in calcium, manganese, iron, zinc elements, and vitamin B₁. The total amino acid content was 53.27 mg/g, containing all 20 common amino acids, with essential amino acids accounting for 37.4% of the total amino acids. The total polyphenol, total flavonoid and total saponin contents of finger millet were 571, 533 and 251 mg/100 g, respectively. The ethyl acetate extractable fraction had the strongest antioxidant activity, and UPLC-MS/MS detected 59 phenolic acid compounds and 74 flavonoid compounds. The majority of the top 30 most abundant components were found to have strong biological activity. The above results indicate that finger millet has rich nutritional components, and its extracts have good antioxidant activity. This new food resource has broad application prospects.