Abstract
BACKGROUNDIn recent decades, grain amaranths have attracted attention due to their valuable combination of nutritional traits, with higher protein and oil content than conventional cereals. Before they can be proposed as an unconventional ingredient in animal feed, many aspects still need to be investigated from field production to nutritive value. The present research aimed to study the agronomic traits, proximate composition, and digestibility/degradability, fatty acid profile, antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content of two grain amaranth species, Amaranthus cruentus and Amaranthus hypochondriacus (for a total of six accessions), grown in a Mediterranean environment.RESULTSBoth species showed seed yields comparable to or higher than the traditional cereal crops in the same environment. On the whole, A. cruentus resulted in a higher seed production than A. hypochondriacus. Mexico and Montana accessions, both belonging to A. cruentus, showed the highest yield (3.73 t ha−1, on average). Few differences emerged in nutritive value between species and accessions: the Illinois accession of A. cruentus showed the best performance in terms of in vitro degradability and gas production, but not for volatile fatty acid production; the fermentation kinetics was slowest in the Illinois accession and fastest in the Montana accession of A. cruentus and the India accession of A. hypochondriacus.CONCLUSIONFrom a health perspective, the Nebraska accession of A. hypochondriacus represents the best accession, with the lowest saturated fatty acid content and the highest polyunsaturated fatty acid content. © 2022 The Authors. Journal of The Science of Food and Agriculture published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of Society of Chemical Industry.
Highlights
In recent decades, a reduction in biodiversity and in the number of crops for food and feed use has stimulated researchers to study alternative underexploited crops with nutritional and nutraceutical potential
The grains exhibit a valuable combination of nutritional traits, with a higher crude protein (CP: 130–180 g kg−1) and ether extract (EE: 63–81 g kg−1) content[5,6] than conventional cereals such maize (CP: 100 g kg−1 and EE: 45 g kg−1), wheat (CP: 140 g kg−1 and EE: 26 g kg−1), rice (CP: 85 g kg−1 and EE: 42 g kg−1),[7,8] and sorghum (CP: 120 g kg−1 and EE: 40 g kg−1)[9] along with a qualified fatty acid profile comprising about
The thousand seed weight showed that three accessions of A. cruentus plus India of A. hypochondriacus (0.84 g, on average) were significantly higher in comparison with the Pennsylvania accession of A. hypochondriacus (0.68 g) (P < 0.05) (Fig. 3)
Summary
A reduction in biodiversity and in the number of crops for food and feed use has stimulated researchers to study alternative underexploited crops with nutritional and nutraceutical potential. 360 g kg−1 of saturated fatty acids (SFA) and 640 g kg−1 of unsaturated fatty acids (UFA), the latter mainly represented by oleic (320–330 g kg−1) and linoleic (270–280 g kg−1) acids.[5,6] amaranth contains interesting secondary metabolites, which contribute to its potential health benefits,[10] such as phenolic compounds, which are considered to be cholesterol-lowering, anti-thrombosis, anti-inflammatory, anti-cancer factors,[10] and a Grain amaranths have attracted attention due to their valuable combination of nutritional traits, with higher protein and oil content than conventional cereals Before they can be proposed as an unconventional ingredient in animal feed, many aspects still need to be investigated from field production to nutritive value. The present research aimed to study the agronomic traits, proximate composition, and digestibility/degradability, fatty acid profile, antioxidant activity, and total phenolic content of two grain amaranth species, Amaranthus cruentus and Amaranthus hypochondriacus (for a total of six accessions), grown in a Mediterranean environment
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