Mineral composition of flours produced from modern and ancient wheat varieties cultivated in Romania

Introduction. The aim of the present research was to study the mineral composition of flours produced from different wheat varieties from the collection of the Plant Genetic Resources Bank Mihai Cristea Suceava, Romania cultivated under the same conditions. Materials and methods. Twenty four samples of whole wheat flour produced from different wheat varieties namely fifteen from common wheat (Triticum aestivum L.), five from einkorn wheat (Triticum monococcum L.) and four from spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) were analyzed to determine their mineral composition using an Energy Dispersive X-ray Analysis. The statistical analysis of the results was made using the hierarchical cluster analysis technique with a WARD method as a grouping algorithm. Results and discussion. Generally, the ancient species of wheat were characterized by higher total mineral content than the modern ones, especially einkorn varieties. For all samples of flours significant differences were found in the amount of potassium (K), phosphorus (P), calcium (Ca), manganese (Mn), iron (Fe), zinc (Zn) and copper (Cu). However, all wheat varieties had high potassium and low copper amounts comparative to the other determined elements. Some of the most important microminerals for human nutrition, for example, Fe and Zn, were found in high amounts in flours from different wheat varieties but the samples from ancient wheat were characterized with bigger amounts of these elements than the modern ones. Meanwhile, in some modern wheat varieties these minerals were also present in sufficient quantities. The content of minerals depended more on the agronomic yield than on whether wheat varieties belonged to ancient or modern species. Conclusions. The results show high variation in the mineral amount between different varieties. The knowledge of this variation can be useful in further breeding studies which aim to improve the nutritional quality of wheat grain and to develop micronutrient biofortification strategies. Both spelt and common wheat varieties showed overall a high mineral content. It seems that the agronomic yield has a significant impact on the mineral nutrients amount in wheat.

Automated summary

The research studied the mineral composition of flours produced from different wheat varieties and found that ancient wheat varieties had higher mineral content than modern ones, especially einkorn wheat. There were significant differences in mineral content among different wheat varieties, with mineral content being more influenced by agronomic yield.