Search

Wheat breeding efforts, which have been focused narrowly on crop yield increases, have caused a reduction in genetic diversity. Namely, old wheat landraces have been unfairly neglected and reduced to small quantities in gene banks and, at lesser extent, in farm private collections for a long time. However, the local landraces and the traditional old varieties of wheat have gained new attention, presumably owing to the increased public awareness of the need to preserve genetic diversity and the increased consumers’ demand for genuine and traditional foods. The aim of this study was to evaluate the rheological properties of wholegrain flour from three different wheat species (7riticum aestivum subsp. aestivum, black grain bread wheat variety; Triticum turgidum subsp. durum, durum wheat; and Triticum aestivum subsp. spelta, spelt wheat) and to test their suitability to produce spontaneously fermented sourdough as an adequate leavening agent in wheat bread production. Spontaneous fermentation of flours was carried out for 5 days with back-slopping every 24 h (dough yield of 200) at 25°C. After achieving mature sourdough, the bread was prepared by replacing refined wheat flour at a 20% level with sourdough samples. Bread with the addition of sourdough made of modern wheat varicties and bakery yeast-fermented bread were used as controls. The technological properties of the wholegrain flours estimated by means of Mixolab indicated rather good protein quality and the ability to form doughs with good stability in all tested samples. The black grain wheat variety showed significantly longer dough development times and higher mixing and dough stability, while the GlutoPeak parameters obtained for this variety were comparable to those of modern wheat. The addition of sourdough from old wheat landraces resulted in breads of similar specific volume and texture. Regarding the sensory evaluation, the most prominent differences were obtained for the textural, odour, and flavour prop

Wheat is one of the most important staple crops in Serbia and plays an important role in food security and nutrition. Phenolic compounds are dominant antioxidants in whole grains and are essential quality traits in future breeding programs as they are known for their beneficial cffects on health. With the aim of analyzing local wheat diversity in terms of phenolic compounds, 33 local landraces and old locally adapted varieties and 3 modern wheat varieties were grown in 2021/2022. So, the objective of this work was to optimize the extraction of phenolic compounds and analyze them by HPLC/DAD method and compare old with modern cultivars. As it is known that cereal grains contain different phenolic compounds, mainly phenolic acids in bound form, the extraction of phenolic compounds was done from wholemeal flour samples after hydrolysis. Alkaline hydrolysis conducted at 25°C for 12 h using a 2 M NaOH solution in water demonstrated greater efficiency compared to employing solutions of up to 10 M KOH in methanol under the same temperature and duration. HPLCDAD analysis revealed that ferulic acid presents the major phenolic compound both in old and modern wheat samples ranging between 14 and 149 mg/kg in old and 51 and 61 mg/kg in modern varieties. Apart from ferulic acid, vanillic acid (3.1-11.5 mg/kg), syringic acid (1.4-5.5 mg/kg) and p-coumaric acid (1-6.9 mg/kg) were identified and quantified in old, but not in new varieties. Our results indicate that the genetic potential of old varieties in terms of polyphenolic compounds is not fully utilized because the content of ferulic acid in whole grains in some samples is almost three times higher than in modern varieties that do not differ significantly among themselves.

Content of total phenolics and antioxidative potential were determined in 33 local landraces and old locally adapted varieties grown in Serbia in 2021/2022, among them 3 varieties are modern. Wholemeal flour was analyzed. Total phenolics were determined according to spectrophotometric assay. Antioxidative potential was measured as DPPH radical scavenging activity and the results expressed as ICso values. The lower the ICso value, the more potent is the extract at scavenging DPPH and this implies a higher antioxidant activity. Total phenolics in 18 old locally adapted varieties and 12 local landraces were in the range of 351-963 pg GAE/g of flour, while average value of total phenolics in 3 modern varieties was 390 + 7.3 pg GAE/g of flour and was lower than in majority of all local landraces and varieties. Only one third of 30 old local varieties and landraces showed lower ICso values (150-230 mg/mL) than modern varieties (232-280 mg/mL). Average ICso value for 30 tested wheat samples was 286 = 104 mg/mL. Correlation of -0.616 was obtained for total phenolic content and scavenging activity expressed as ICso. Yield and thousand kernel weights for old local varieties and landraces were 5.5-8.1 t/ha and 270-480 g, respectively. Measurements significant in assessing the yield and quality of a wheat such as thousand kernel weight in correlation with the antioxidative potential can be an important consideration in selecting and improving crop varieties, according to the literature data, however this parameter was not measured in this study.