Correlation Analysis of Functional Components of Barley Grain

Abstract

Barley is a medicinal and edible crop that is not only the most stress tolerant and comprehensively utilized cereal, but is also a functional food crop used in strategies for chronic disease prevention, such as reduction of obesity and Type II diabetes. Using spectrophotometry methods, four functional components in 830 accessions of Yunnan improved landraces barley grains have been detected: resistant starch, total flavonoids, total alkaloids, and γ-aminobutyric acid. The average content of resistant starch was 3.57 ± 2.72 mg/100 g. The average content of total flavonoids was 133.09 ± 27.65 mg/100 g. The average content of total alkaloids was 21.26 ± 9.18 mg/100 g. The average content of γ-aminobutyric acid was 5.70 ± 2.82 mg/100 g. Sixty accessions of high functional components of high superior landraces were detected, including 14 accessions with high content of total flavonoids (content >195 mg/100 g), 17 accessions with high content of resistant starch (content >12%), 11 accessions of high content of total alkaloids (content >45.19 mg/100 g), 18 accessions of high content of γ-aminobutyric acid (content >13.03 mg/100 g). These superior barley functional landraces offer excellent landraces for barley breeding. By correlation analysis of four functional components of barley grain, total flavonoids and γ-aminobutyric acid have a significant negative correlation (r = −0.154**, n = 830), total flavonoids and resistant starch have a significant negative correlation (r = −0.097**, n = 830), total alkaloids and γ-aminobutyric acid have a significant negative correlation (r = −0.096**, n = 830), and γ-aminobutyric acid and resistant starch have a significant negative correlation(r = −0.122**, n = 830). By a principal component analysis of functional components, the first principal component is γ-aminobutyric acid and the second is resistant starch, followed be flavonoids. Content of γ-aminobutyric acid changes the most, followed by resistant starch and flavonoids.