FIBER QUALITY OF EMMER (TRITICUM-DICOCCUM SCHUBLER) AND EINKORN WHEAT(TRITICUM-MONOCOCCUM L) LANDRACES AS DETERMINED BY ANALYTICAL PYROLYSIS

Hulled wheat grain is used mainly in the alternative or health food ma rket. Most of the suggested beneficial effects of these cereals are du e to specific characteristics of their fibre. Pyrolysis/gas-chromatogr aphy/mass-spectrometry (PY/GC/MS) has proved to be a reproducible anal ytical tool for fibre analysis applicable to the analysis of cereal fi bre. Pericarp fibre of 10 emmer and einkorn wheat landraces were analy sed by PY/GC/MS and compared to a test durum wheat variety. The pyroly sis fragments derived from the polysaccharide fraction were significan tly more abundant in emmers than in the other genotypes, whereas the h ighest percentage of lignin-derived pyrolysis fragments was detected i n durum wheat. The genotype groups (winter and spring emmers, einkorn and durum wheat) were satisfactorily discriminated on the basis of the molecular composition of the fibre, whereas a discrimination within g roups was not possible due to the limited number of samples available. The results suggest that the native emmer genetic material may repres ent a source of high-value dietary fibre. Breeding should aim at prese rving such characters. (C) 1998 Society of Chemical Industry.