the.com/wheat germ

means The nutrient-dense embryo of the wheat kernel, the part that would have grown into a new plant, now sold separately as a health food.

from Straightforward English compound — 'germ' here isn't the microbe sense but the older Latin-derived meaning from 'germen,' meaning sprout or bud, the same root behind 'germinate.' Wheat germ is literally the part of the seed that germinates. White flour milling strips it out along with the bran because its natural oils go rancid quickly, which keeps shelf flour shelf-stable but less nutritious — a tradeoff health-food marketing rediscovered in the 20th century by selling the discarded germ back to consumers.