Abstract
Hulled, or ancient, wheats were the earliest domesticated wheats by mankind and the ancestors of current wheats. Their cultivation drastically decreased during the 1960s; however, the increasing demand for a healthy and equilibrated diet led to rediscovering these grains. Our aim was to use a non-targeted metabolomic approach to discriminate and characterize similarities and differences between ancient Triticum varieties. For this purpose, 77 hulled wheat samples from three different varieties were collected: Garfagnana T. turgidum var. dicoccum L. (emmer), ID331 T. monococcum L. (einkorn) and Rouquin T. spelta L. (spelt). The ultra high performance liquid chromatography coupled to high resolution tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-QTOF) metabolomics approach highlighted a pronounced sample clustering according to the wheat variety, with an excellent predictability (Q2), for all the models built. Fifteen metabolites were tentatively identified based on accurate masses, isotopic pattern, and product ion spectra. Among these, alkylresorcinols (ARs) were found to be significantly higher in spelt and emmer, showing different homologue composition. Furthermore, phosphatidylcholines (PC) and lysophosphatidylcholines (lysoPC) levels were higher in einkorn variety. The results obtained in this study confirmed the importance of ARs as markers to distinguish between Triticum species and revealed their values as cultivar markers, being not affected by the environmental influences.
Highlights
Cereals represent one of the most important commodities providing basic nutrients to human diet, such as corn, rice, sorghum, or wheat, whose starchy grains are used as food
During the past years, the increasing demand for natural and organic products led to the rediscovery of ancient wheat species such as spelt (Triticum spelta L.), emmer (Triticum dicoccum L.), and einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) [3]
A comparison of ancient and standard wheat highlighted that the ancient grains are characterized by a higher content of soluble dietary fiber, proteins, and lipids [4]
Summary
Cereals represent one of the most important commodities providing basic nutrients to human diet, such as corn, rice, sorghum, or wheat, whose starchy grains are used as food. In the particular case of Triticum species, they have been classified into hulled and free-threshing (“naked”) forms Among the latter, bread and durum wheat are the most important Triticum species cultivated worldwide [1]. During the past years, the increasing demand for natural and organic products led to the rediscovery of ancient wheat species such as spelt (Triticum spelta L.), emmer (Triticum dicoccum L.), and einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) [3]. This renewed interest is associated with the desire for a healthy and equilibrated diet, such as the Mediterranean diet. Concerning trace elements, emmer, einkorn, and spelt mainly differed from wheat cultivars for higher contents of Li, Mg, P, Se, and Zn [7]
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