What's new on total phenols and ?-oryzanol derivatives in wheat? A comparison between modern and ancient varieties

A big challenge for our century concerns discovering new foods, including re-discovering ancient wheat. Phenolic and steryl ferulates composition of Tuscan and Campania wheat samples was evaluated by HPLC-DADMS/MS. Cinnamic acids and flavonoids were expressed as ferulic acid and schaftoside equivalents, respectively. Agronomic conditions with a higher rate of plants/m(2) promoted higher amounts of phenols in most of the Tuscan varieties. The ancient varieties Gentil Rosso (1137 mu g/mg dry weight) and Carosella 2 (854 mu g/mg dry weight) showed the highest phenols amount, determined by HPLC-DAD. Steryl ferulates were expressed as ferulic acid equivalents. Campestanyl and sitostanyl ferulates were found as main steryl ferulates compounds in wheat, differently from rice, millet and sorghum; 10 steryl ferulates and 2 caffeoyl phytosterols were tentatively identified. Total steryl ferulates in Tuscan and Campania wheat samples ranged 37.6-62.3 mu g/g dry weight and 14.4-56.6 mu g/g dry weight, respectively. Ancient whole wheat pasta showed 50 % higher steryl ferulates with respect to modern whole wheat pasta. The study compared for the first time the content of gamma-oryzanol derivatives in ancient and modern wheat varieties.

Automated summary

This study evaluated the composition of phenolic and steryl ferulates in Tuscan and Campania wheat samples, and found that agronomic conditions and wheat varieties can affect their content. Ancient wheat varieties showed higher amounts of phenolic and steryl ferulates, and ancient whole wheat pasta had higher steryl ferulates compared to modern whole wheat pasta.