Nutritive assessment of amino acids for three ChineseZajius produced from hull-less barley

Abstract

In this study, the free amino acid content of traditional Zajiu, ‘small-scale trial’ Zajiu and commercial Zajiu, produced from hull-less barley, was determined using an automatic amino acid analyser. The amino acid nutritive value of the tested wines were measured using the ratio coefficient of amino acid and linear-regression analysis. A Chinese yellow wine was used as a reference. At least 17 types of free amino acids were found in all four of the tested wines. Chinese yellow wine exhibited the highest total amino acid content (3094 mg/L), followed by traditional Zajiu (2875 mg/L) and commercial Zajiu (2042 mg/L). However, Zajius had a higher essential amino acids/total amino acid ratio than Chinese yellow wine, and their composition of essencial amino acid more closely matched the recommendations of the World Health Organization/UN Food and Agriculture Organization. Analysis based on linear regression showed that the amino acid nutritive value of the wines was ranked from high to low as follows: commercial Zajiu, traditional Zajiu, Chinese yellow wine and ‘small-scale trial’ Zajiu. These results provide some information on the amino acid nutritional quality of Chinese Zajiu, and a new method for the amino acid nutritive value assessment of foods and beverages. Copyright © 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling