Contributions to breadmaking of inherent variations in lipid content and composition of wheat cultivars. I. Results of survey

Abstract

Relationships between test-bake loaf volume and flour lipid parameters were investigated for 14 wheat cultivars grown in three successive crop years (1984, 1985 and 1986). In two of the crop years (1985 and 1986), each cultivar was grown at six levels of nitrogen fertilizer and in 1986, one extra cultivar was included in the survey. Loaf volumes were measured in an optimized baking test. Two separate solvent systems were used to extract lipids—light petroleum (b.p. 40–60°C) and chloroform. Lipid content was determined by Soxhlet extraction and gravimetric analysis and lipid composition in terms of polar (PoL) and non-polar (NL) components determined by densitometry of thin-layer chromatography patterns. Low but consistent correlations were found between loaf volume and several lipid parameters for each crop year and for each solvent system, in particular, total non-starch lipid (chloroform extract) and NL/PoL ratio. It was estimated that, in the present survey, differences in total lipid could account for up to 5 % and the NL/PoL ratio for up to 11 % of the variation in loaf volume.