2012-05-08
Opportunities to produce organic wheat with high nutritional and baking quality
Spikes of different wheat genotypes. Photo: Hans Larsson
Old wheat varieties have cultivation properties that are suitable for organic farming. Now Abrar Hussain from SLU has compared the nutritional values and baking properties of a large gene bank collection of wheat genotypes. The content of trace elements, vitamin E and heavy metals, as well as baking properties, were found to vary greatly, which can be exploited in plant breeding.
A key difference between modern wheat cultivars and older varieties is that today's varieties have a much shorter straw, and therefore produce more seeds and less straw. One reason behind the growing interest in organic farming for the older varieties are that tall crops shade weeds better . In addition, they often have a higher protein content. The cultivation of old wheat varieties have increased significantly in Sweden during the past years.
Abrar Hussain from SLU shows in his thesis how wheat varieties with different genetic backgrounds differ as a food commodity, in terms of both health and baking properties. The survey includes selections, old landraces, primitive wheat and spelt, as well as old and new cultivars.
There was a great variation between the wheat genotypes, in all health aspects that were investigated, ie. content of trace elements, vitamin E (tocochromanol) and heavy metals. This variation can be exploited in breeding programmes to improve the nutritional quality in organically grown wheat. Vitamin E content was particularly high in primitive wheat. Varieties with a low uptake of cadmium may be of special interest in areas with cadmium-rich soils.
There were significant differences between the wheat genotypes also in terms of baking qualities. Particularly good baking qualities were found in a durum wheat and a spelt wheat from Gotland. The varieties which contained most trace elements and vitamin E were however not among those with the best baking characteristics.
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Abrar Hussain, Dept. of agrosystems, SLU, defended his thesis Quality of organically produced wheat from diverse origin on April 13, 2012, at SLU in Alnarp. The opponent was Professor Edith T. Lammerts van Bueren, The Netherlands.
More information
Abrar Hussain, 040-41 52 73, abrar.hussain@slu.se
Link to the thesis (pdf)
http://pub.epsilon.slu.se/8651/
Press images (may be published without charge in articles about the dissertation, the name of the photographer should be stated):
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- Spikes of different wheat genotypes. Photo: Hans Larsson
- Grains of different wheat genotypes. Photo: Hans Larsson
- Abrar Hussain. Photo: Private
Press releases from SLU:
http://www.slu.se/en/about-slu/press-room/
Written by:
David Stephansson