Detection and quantification of adulteration of durum wheat flour by flour from common wheat using reverse phase HPLC

Abstract

AbstractWhen common wheat (Triticum aestivum L) gliadins were separated by RP‐HPLC, a major doublet peak eluted at 47.20 and 47.94 min. This peak was consistently found to be absent in Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf) gliadins separated under identical conditions. In Durum wheat gliadins a characteristic small peak eluted at 48.30 min followed at 50.47, 510.37, 52.80 min by larger peaks. The peak area ratio of the peaks eluting at 50.47 and 51.37 min was found to be 2.18 (±0.14). This ratio was found to decrease proportionally on contamination of Durum wheat flour with flour from some common wheat varieties. This ratio alone was not enough to detect and quantify adulteration by all varieties of common wheat. An alternative method was found whereby the peak emerging between 47 and 49 min in the Durum wheat gliadin elution profile was expressed as a ratio of the total protein applied. This ratio was shown to increase when Durum wheat flour was adulterated with flour from common wheat thus enabling quantitative estimation of the level of adulteration. A third method of detecting adulteration of Durum wheat flour is also proposed in which the peak emerging between 47 and 49 min is collected and the protein separated by PAGE. The presence of more than one band of γ/β‐gliadins is indicative of adulteration.