Assessment of nutritional value in spelt (Triticum spelta L.) and winter (Triticum aestivum L.) wheat by chemical and biological methods

The nutritional value of two Varieties of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) was compared with the conventional variety of winter wheat (Triticum aestiv um) grown in Slovakia and Sweden. The chemical analysis shows that T. spelt a has a significantly higher content of crude protein, proteins (P < 0.001) , more nonessential amino acids and significantly less lysine (16 g N, P < 0.05). The assessed values show that with an increasing content of crude pr otein the content of proteins does not increase proportionately. The repres entation of individual protein fractions, with different digestibility, cha nges with the variation of total N content. We did not find any significant differences between the varieties on the basis of biological test of growt h in rats. The highest biological value of proteins (BVP) was assessed for the German variety of spelt wheat grown in Slovakia (75.6%) out of the test ed wheats, however, the differences between the varieties were not signific ant. We found significant differences in excrement N output from N uptake, and it manifested itself in significant differences in digestibility of cru de protein which was higher in the samples of spelt wheat (80.5 and/or 85.1 %). The quality of proteins in spelt wheat is higher than in winter wheat S amanta, which is also demonstrated by higher NPU and UP values.