Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795

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Food Chemistry

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Is organically produced wheat a source of tocopherols and tocotrienolsfor health food?

Abrar Hussain a,⇑, Hans Larsson a, Marie E. Olsson b, Ramune Kuktaite a, Heinrich Grausgruber c,Eva Johansson a

a The Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Department of Agrosystems, Box 104, SE-23053, Alnarp, Swedenb Department of Horticulture, Swedish University of Agricultural Sciences, Box 103, SE-23053, Alnarp, Swedenc Department of Crop Sciences, BOKU-University of Natural Resources and Life Sciences, Konrad-Lorenz-Str. 24, 3430 Tulln, Austria

a r t i c l e i n f o

Article history:Received 24 May 2011Received in revised form 15 October 2011Accepted 23 November 2011Available online 13 December 2011

Keywords:AntioxidantsTocochromanolsOrganic wheatPrimitive wheatSpeltLandracesVitamin EDaily requirementsTriticum spp.

0308-8146/$ - see front matter � 2011 Elsevier Ltd. Adoi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.11.141

Abbreviations: a-T, a-tocopherol; a-T3, a-tocotrieb-tocotrienol; HPLC, high performance liquid chromRDI, recommended daily intake; FAO, Food and AgrUnited Nations.⇑ Corresponding author. Tel.: +46 762528528; fax:

E-mail address: Abrar.Hussain@slu.se (A. Hussain)

a b s t r a c t

Forty organically grown spring and winter wheat genotypes were investigated for content and composi-tions of tocopherol and tocotrienol. The selected genotypes belonged to five different genotypic groups,i.e. landraces, old cultivars, modern cultivars, spelt wheat, and primitive wheat. The total tocochromanolscontent (21.9–37.3 mg/kg) wheat were in similar ranges as previously reported for conventionally grownwheat. The vitamin E activity varied among the genotypic groups and corresponded to 12–25% of the rec-ommended daily intake. Primitive wheat was found to contain the highest percentage of tocotrienols(74%). Content of tocochromanols and vitamin E activity are known to decrease by heating. Organicwheat is more commonly consumed as whole and sprouted grain when compared to conventional wheatand might therefore be a good source of tocochromanols in health food. The large variation in tocopherolsand tocotrienols in the investigated wheat genotypes indicated a great potential for the development ofspecific wheat genotypes with health promoting properties in future breeding programmes.

� 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction (Liu, 2007). From the tocochromanols a-tocopherol has been deter-

Cereal grains contribute with significant amounts of energy, pro-tein and selected minerals to the human diet and contain a largevariety of biologically active substances, including vitamin E (Hill,1998). Vitamin E is an important antioxidant and the term is usedto describe a family of eight lipid-soluble antioxidants (tocochrom-anols) with two types of structures, four designated tocopherols(a, b, c and d-tocopherol) and the other four designated tocotrienols(a, b, c and d-tocotrienol). The vitamin E activity of the tocochrom-anols depends on their chemical structure and on physiologicalfactors. Tocopherols show vitamin E activity to various degreeswhile tocotrienols does not exhibit vitamin E activity (Sheppard,Pennington, & Weihrauch, 1993).

Among antioxidant actions of the tocochromanols, one impor-tant action is to inhibit lipid peroxidation in biological membranes

ll rights reserved.

nol; b-T, b-tocopherol; b-T3,atography; DM, dry matter;iculture Organization of the

+46 40462166..

mined as the most efficient antioxidant for breaking free radicaldriven chain reactions (Packer, 1995). In addition to their antioxi-dant properties, tocochromanols play a role in modulating degen-erative diseases such as cancer and cardiovascular diseases as wellas in lowering the cholesterol level in the blood (Jiang, Christen,Shigenaga, & Ames, 2001; Tiwari & Cummins, 2009; Tucker &Townsend, 2005).

Wheat is an important cereal crop all over the world and is usedfor making different food products. Hexaploid bread wheat (Triticumaestivum L.) is generally used in the production of breads and cakes.Durum wheat (Triticum durum Desf.) has a harder grain than breadwheat and is used for production of pastas (Marconi & Carcea,2001). These food products supply carbohydrates and protein, andare also a useful source of antioxidant compounds like tocochroma-nols in our diet (Miller, Rigelhof, Marquart, Prakash, & Kanter, 2000).The content of total tocochromanols and individual tocochromanolis dependent on cultivated genotype, geographic location and formof agriculture (organic or conventional) (Hejtmánková, Lachman,Hejtmánková, Pivec, & Janovská, 2010; Hidalgo, Brandolini, Pompei,& Piscozzi, 2006; Lampi, Nurmi, Ollilainen, & Piironen, 2008; Yu,2008). Also, spring and winter wheat grains differ significantly in

1790 A. Hussain et al. / Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795

tocochromanols content (Lampi et al., 2008). Average totaltocochromanols content in wheat have been investigated in a num-ber of studies with varying results (10–74.3 mg/kg) (Hejtmánková,Lachman, Hejtmánková, Pivec, & Janovská, 2010; Lampi et al.,2008; Okarter, Liu, Sorrells, & Liu, 2010; Panfili, Fratianni, & Irano,2003). The b-tocotrienol has been found the main tocochromanolin wheat grain and its content was found to be 10–44.9 mg/kg (Lam-pi et al., 2008). Generally, the contents of a- and b-tocotrienol werefound to be higher, 59–69% of total tocochromanols in the wheatgrain, as compared to a- and b-tocopherols (Lampi et al., 2008).

Primitive wheat such as einkorn (Triticum monococcum L.) andemmer (Triticum dicoccum Schrank ex Schübler) were the earliestcultivated wheats and at that time they were grown in organicfarming systems (Hammer, 2000). Previous studies have shownprimitive wheat to contain high nutritional value in various aspects,e.g. high content of nutritionally important minerals (Hussain,Larsson, Kuktaite, & Johansson, 2011) and high levels of tocochrom-anols, carotenoids and proteins (Grausgruber, Scheiblauer, Schön-lechner, Ruckenbauer, & Berghofer, 2004; Hidalgo et al., 2006;Lampi et al., 2008). There are some studies available on tocochro-manol composition in conventionally grown wheat, but none hasfocused on the contribution of organically produced wheat to ourfood regarding tocochromanol intake.

Thus, the present study aimed at evaluating whether organi-cally produced wheat is a good source of tocochromanols for hu-man consumption and to evaluate genetic variation and sourcessuitable for breeding of cultivars for organic production of wheatgrains with health promoting properties.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Samples

Seed samples of wheat genotypes were collected mainly withina project aiming at breeding wheat genotypes for organic farmingthat included Swedish genotypes but also some genotypes fromGermany and Denmark. A total of 40 wheat genotypes (26 winterwheat, 14 spring wheat) were included in this study. These geno-types have already been screened and selected for organic produc-tion on the basis of their adaptability and different agronomiccharacters e.g. yield and growth. Within the breeding programme,it has been a desire to breed genotypes not only suitable for organ-ic production, but also with a high nutritional value. Such geno-types will be of added value for food production. Therefore, thegenotypes have previously been screened for nutritional importantminerals (Hussain, Larsson, Kuktaite, & Johansson, 2010) and heavymetals content (Hussain et al., 2011). In the present study, thetocochromanols concentration was concentrated on. The geno-types originated from five genotypic groups: (1) landraces, definedas a dynamic population of a cultivated plant with distinct identityand associated with traditional farming systems (Newton et al.,2010), (2) old cultivars, defined here as cultivars that have evolvedduring 1900–1960, (3) modern cultivars, defined here as cultivarsthat have been evolved after 1970, (4) spelt wheat (Triticum speltaL.) (Campbell, 1997), and (5) primitive wheat, here including ein-korn and emmer wheat (Table 1; for detailed information see sup-plementary files of Hussain et al. (2010). The genotypes weregrown in organic trials in Alnarp (55�39.4 N, 13�5.2 E), Sweden,during 2007–2008. Soil characteristics of the site are shown in Ta-ble 1. After harvesting, the spikes were threshed manually andgrains were stored at 8 �C. Before milling the grain samples werefreeze dried and about 6 g of each grain sample was milled to flour(whole grain) for 20 s by a laboratory mill (Yellow line, A10, IKA-Werke, Staufen, Germany). Afterwards the flour samples were usedfor tocochromanols extraction.

2.2. Chemicals

Standards for a-, b-, c- and d-tocopherols were purchased fromMerck (Darmstadt, Germany); b-tocotrienol from Sigma–Aldrich(Buchs, Switzerland). The standard stock solutions of the tocophe-rols were prepared to a content of 10 mg/ml in ethanol. The stocksolutions were stored at �20 �C. The combined working solutionwas prepared by pooling suitable amounts of each tocopheroland diluting with n-hexane to obtain contents ranging from 20 to100 ng/injection. a-tocotrienol was quantified by the use ofa-tocopherol according to Kramer, Blais, Fouchard, Melnyk, andKallury (1997).

2.3. Saponification

The extraction of tocochromanols was performed using themethod of Fratianni, Caboni, Irano, and Panfili (2002) with modifi-cations. Wheat flour (1 g) was accurately weighed into a screw capTeflon tube and 2.5 ml of ethanol pyrogallol (60 g/l), 1 ml sodiumchloride (10 g/l), 1 ml ethanol (95%) and 1 ml potassium hydroxide(600 g/l) were added. After mixing the tube with a vortex-mixer,the tube was flushed with nitrogen. The tube was capped andtransferred to water bath at 70 �C for 30 min. The tube was mixedwith the vortex-mixer after 10 min of boiling. After saponificationthe tubes were cooled in an ice-water bath and 7.5 ml of sodiumchloride (10 g/l) and n-hexane/ethyl acetate (9:1) was added. Thenthe suspension was centrifuged at 1500 rpm for 5 min and the or-ganic layer was collected. After the first extraction, additionallytwo extractions of the suspension with 5 ml n-hexane/ethyle ace-tate (9:1) were carried out. The collected organic layer was evapo-rated to dryness in the presence of nitrogen and the dry residuewas dissolved in 2 ml of n-hexane. Three replicates were preparedseparately from each sample.

2.4. Analytical HPLC

The separation of tocochromanol compounds was achievedwith the normal phase HPLC method described by Panfili et al.(2003) with some modifications. A Phenomenex LUNA Silica col-umn (250 � 4.6 mm i.d., 5 lm particle size) was used. The mobilephase was n-hexane/ethyl acetate/acetic acid (97.3:1.8:0.9) at aflow rate of 1.6 ml/min. The wavelengths of fluorescence detectionwere set to excitation 290 nm, emission 330 nm. Injection volumewas 10 lL/injection. Separation of tocochromanol compounds forstandards and for one of the samples is shown in Fig. 1.

The percentage recovery of a-, b-, c- and d-tocopherols and b-tocotrienol added to flour sample was determined to obtain thelevel of tocochromanols for analysis and to ensure the precision ofthe method. Percentage recovery of a-, b-, c- and d-tocopherolsand b-tocotrienol were 94.3%, 93.5%, 92.3%, 96.4% and 95.6%, respec-tively. These results showed that the extraction method used pro-vided a successful determination of tocopherols and tocotrienols.

2.5. Data analysis

Analysis of variances (ANOVA) was carried out using procedureGLM of SAS Vers. 9.2 software (SAS Institute, Cary, NC). Mean com-parisons were carried out by the LSD test.

Vitamin E activity was calculated as Tocopherol Equivalents(TE) according to the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF, 2003) as;

Vitamin E activityðTEÞ ¼ Ca�T � 1:0þ Cb�T � 0:5þ Cc�T

� 0:25þ Cd�T � 1:0 ð1Þ

where Ca-T, Cb-T, Cc-T, and Cd-T is the content of a-, b-, c-, and d-tocopherol, respectively.

Table 1Description of wheat genotypic groups and soil characteristics of the growing site.

Genotypic group Samples (n) Description Soil characteristics of the site

Landraces 8 Traditional dynamic population (multi-line) varieties pH 7.0–7.8Old cultivars 13 Varieties from the 1900–1960 breeding period Organic matter 3%Modern cultivars 2 Varieties released after 1970 Clay 25%Spelt wheat 11 Spelt wheat varieties from different breeding periods Farmyard manure Not appliedPrimitive wheat 6 Accessions of einkorn and emmer wheat Organic since 1992

Fig. 1. (A) Typical chromatogram of a mixture of tocochromanol standards. Peaks: 1. a-tocopherol, 3. b-tocopherol, 4. c- tocopherol, 5. b-tocotrienol, 6. d-tocopherol. (B)Chromatogram of tocochromanols in the sample of Schweiz (winter spelt wheat). Peaks: 1. a-tocopherol, 2. a -tocotrienol, 3. b-tocopherol, 5. b-tocotrienol.

A. Hussain et al. / Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795 1791

The Recommended Daily Intake (RDI) of vitamin E (TE) set byEuropean Union Council Directive no 90/496 is 10 mg/day (EC,1990). Proportion of RDI of vitamin E in wheat flour was calculatedon the basis of an average consumption of wheat flour, which is200 g/person/day in the world (FAO, 2007).

3. Results

3.1. General

The major tocochromanols found in our samples were a- and b-tocopherols and a- and b-tocotrienols. Other types of tocochroma-nols i.e. c-tocopherol was only found in traces in some of thesamples.

3.2. Variation of tocochromanols among genotypic groups

Grain content of tocochromanols was found to vary significantlyamong the wheat groups (Table 2). The content of a-tocopherol wasstatistically similar among landraces, old cultivars and modern cul-tivars, but significantly higher than in spelt and primitive wheat.

The highest content of a-tocotrienol was revealed for primitivewheat, although, the content was not significantly different tomodern cultivars and spelt wheat. The lowest content of a-tocotri-enol was found in old cultivars, which were statistically at par withlandraces and modern cultivars.

The lowest content of b-tocopherol was found in primitivewheat, while the highest content in landraces was at par with

modern cultivars. The content of b-tocotrienol was statisticallysimilar among all genotypic groups.

Landraces and modern cultivars were found to have a signifi-cantly higher content of total tocochromanols compared to speltand primitive wheat.

3.3. Variation of tocochromanols within genotypic groups

Tocopherols and tocotrienols contents of individual genotypesare shown in Supplementary Table 1. Ranges of total tocochro-manol content were 27.5–36.5, 23.7–37.3, 32–32.9, 23.1–34.8,21.9–35.2 mg/kg of DW for the genotypic groups of landraces,old cultivars, modern cultivars, spelt and primitive wheat, respec-tively. High total tocopherols (a- + b-tocopherol) content werefound in Lv. Dal 16 borst, Ostby 2, Lv. Dal, Lv. Halland, Rival and6356 Spelt. Total tocotrienols (a- + b-tocotrienol) were found tobe high in T. monococcum, Oland 8, Lv Gotland 6, Spelt vete Got-land, Mummie vete, Olympia and Odin.

3.4. Variation of tocochromanols between spring and winter wheat

The content of tocochromanols varied significantly betweenspring and winter wheat. Spring wheat showed significantly highercontents of a- and b-tocopherols than winter wheat, whereas con-tents of a- and b-tocotrienols were lower in spring wheat (Fig. 2).In regard to total tocochromanols content there was no statisticalsignificant difference between spring and winter wheat (data notshown).

Table 2Variation in genotypic groups regarding tocochromanol compounds and total tocochromanols (mean ± standard deviation mg/kg of DW).

Genotypic groups No. of samples a-T a-T3 b-T b-T3 Total tocochromanols

Landraces 8 10.3 ± 2.78a 3.52 ± 1.32bc 4.08 ± 1.14a 15.1 ± 4.35a 32.9 ± 3.37aOld cultivars 13 9.09 ± 2.03a 3.12 ± 0.66c 3.43 ± 0.79bc 14.7 ± 4.60a 30.3 ± 4.41abModern cultivars 2 8.88 ± 0.72a 3.80 ± 0.38abc 3.52 ± 0.14ab 16.3 ± 0.79a 32.5 ± 0.99aSpelt wheat 11 6.26 ± 2.19b 3.89 ± 0.35ab 2.89 ± 0.80c 15.9 ± 3.43a 28.9 ± 3.47bPrimitive wheat 6 5.18 ± 2.24b 4.39 ± 1.88a 1.87 ± 0.70d 16.5 ± 4.35a 28.0 ± 5.39b

Note: values with different letters in the same column are significantly different from each other (P < 0.05).

Fig. 2. Variation between spring (n = 14) and winter (n = 26) wheat for tocol compounds. Bars with different letters are significantly different from each other (P < 0.05). Thedetail of spring and winter wheat genotypes can be seen in Supplementary Table 1.

1792 A. Hussain et al. / Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795

3.5. Percentage and range of tocotrienols

Variation among genotypic groups was found for the percent-age of tocotrienols in total tocochromanols (Fig. 3). Primitive wheatrevealed the highest percentage of tocotrienols, averaging 74.03%within the range of 56.9–88.5%. The lowest percentage of tocotrie-nols was observed for landraces (mean 55.39%; range 42.7–83.1%).Winter wheat showed a higher mean content (67.75%) than springwheat (53.23%).

3.6. Vitamin E activity and proportion of recommended daily intakefrom wheat

Significant differences were found among the genotypic groupsregarding the vitamin E activity (Table 3). High vitamin E activity

Fig. 3. Characterization of genotypic groups on the basis of proportion of tocotrienols in tas well as the highest and lowest contents measured among the samples.

was found in landraces, old and modern cultivars. The percentageof recommended daily intake (RDI) of vitamin E from the con-sumption of 200 g of wheat flour was higher from landraces(24.6%) as compared to the other genotypic groups. Primitivewheat showed the lowest percentage (12.2%) of RDI by consump-tion of 200 g of wheat flour per day.

4. Discussion

Organically produced crops are believed to be more health pro-moting with higher nutritional values as compared to convention-ally grown crops (Nelson, Giles, Macilwain, & Gewin, 2004). Theseassumptions correspond with our previous results, showing highcontent of minerals (Hussain et al., 2011) and low content of heavymetals (Hussain et al., 2011) in the present wheat material as

otal tocochromanols. Staples are showing mean values of the investigated genotypes

Table 3Vitamin E activity of different genotypic groups calculated as tocopherol equivalents (SCF, 2003) and percentage of recommended intake from average flour consumption in theworld 200 g/person/day.

Genotypic group Vitamin E activity (mg/kg) Recommended daily intake (mg) Percentage of recommended vitamin E from 200 g of wheat flour (%)

Landraces 12.3a 10 24.6Old cultivars 10.8a 10 21.6Modern cultivars 10.6ab 10 21.2Spelt wheat 7.7bc 10 15.4Primitive wheat 6.1c 10 12.2

Note: values with different letters in the same column are significantly different from each other P < 0.05.

A. Hussain et al. / Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795 1793

related to that of other conventionally grown wheat. However,concerning the content of total tocochromanols, tocopherols,tocotrienols, and tocotrienols/tocochromanols in the present studysimilar ranges were found for conventionally grown wheat(Hejtmánková et al., 2010; Hidalgo et al., 2006; Lampi et al.,2008; Okarter et al., 2010; Zielinski, Ciska, & Kozlowska, 2001).Since to our knowledge there has been no other study publishedyet on tocochromanols in organically produced wheat only a com-parison with the different studies realised with conventionallygrown wheat is possible.

Our previous results have shown that especially primitivewheat was of interest as health promoting wheat for organic culti-vation. These wheat showed the highest contents of minerals andthe lowest contents of heavy metals among the investigated geno-typic groups (Hussain et al., 2011). In the present study, primitivewheat showed the highest tocotrienol/total tocochromanol ratioamong the investigated genotypic groups, which has also been re-ported using conventional growing systems (Lampi et al., 2008).The highest tocotrienol content was found for einkorn wheatwhich as well is in agreement with previous findings (Hejtmán-ková et al., 2010; Hidalgo et al., 2006; Lampi et al., 2008). Tocotrie-nols are the primary form of vitamin E and a minor plantconstituent. Cereals such as wheat, rice and barley are consideredas an important source of tocotrienols (Miyazawa et al., 2009). Insome studies, tocotrienols have been reported to have a higherantioxidant activity when compared to tocopherols (Serbinova,Kagan, Han, & Packer, 1991). Tocotrienols have also gained scien-tific interest due to the fact that they have several health promot-ing properties that are different from tocopherols (Schaffer, Müller,& Eckert, 2005). For example, tocotrienols are lowering the activityof the heptic enzyme which is responsible for cholesterol synthesis(Miyazawa et al., 2009). Tocotrienols are also preventing neurode-generation (Sen, Khanna, Roy, & Packer, 2000), reducing oxidativeprotein damage, extending the mean life span of Caenorhabditis ele-gans (Adachi & Ishii, 2000), and promoting the suppression ofhuman breast cancer cell (Nesaretnam, Stephen, Dils, & Darbre,1998). Further, tocotrienols play a role in modulation of angiogen-esis (formation of new blood vessels) during tumour growth(Tonini, Rossi, & Claudio, 2003). Such evidences reveal the impor-tance of tocotrienols for human health and suggests that natural

Table 4Reported levels of a and b-tocotrienol in different cereals compared to wheat.

Cereals a-T3

Wheat (genotypes from diverse origin) 2.1–8.4Barley 24.9–40.3Oat 13.3–56.4Rice 2.3–7.0Rye 5.4–27.4Corn 5.0–5.3Barley (hulled) 26.0–45.0Durum wheat 3.13–6.9Modern wheat 6.2

n.d = not determined.

sources of tocotrienols such as cereal foods can be an importantfactor in preventing and treating different human diseases(Zielinski, 2009). The present study showed a higher percentageof tocotrienols in winter wheat when compared to spring wheat,confirming previous results (Lampi et al., 2008). Further, the wheatgenotypes varied in tocotrienols content, implying that someorganically produced genotypes might be a better source of tocot-rienols in the human diet when compared to other genotypes(Table 4). Other cereals such as barley, oat, rice and corn also gen-erally have lower b-tocotrienols content as compared to wheat.Thus, the wheat grain can contribute with a significant amountof tocotrienols in our daily food to prevent us from differentdiseases.

According to our results, wheat can contribute up to 20% vita-min E of the daily requirement, although, other crops, e.g. seabuckthorn berries, have significantly higher contents (Andersson,Rumpunen, Johansson, & Olsson, 2008). The calculation of vitaminE requirements in the present study was based on FAO data consid-ering a mean consumption of 200 g wheat flour per person per day(FAO, 2007). The recommended daily intake of vitamin E is 10 mgper day according to EC (1990). However, it has to be consideredthat tocochromanols are destroyed by heating (cooking or baking).Extrusion cooking of wheat grain was found to cause a significantdecrease in tocopherols and tocotrienols content, and a 63–94%reduction of vitamin E activity (Zielinski et al., 2001). The use ofwheat as a source of vitamin E and tocotrienols has then to be builton consumption of non-heated wheat. Organic wheat is generallymore often consumed as whole and/or sprouted grain productswhen compared to conventionally produced wheat. Whole grainsof wheat have been found to hold 10–30% higher content of vita-min E than different white flour fractions (Zielinski et al., 2001).Sprouted wheat grains have shown increasing amounts of vitaminsand minerals when compared to non-sprouted grains (Plaza, deAncos, & Cano, 2003). Thus, organically produced wheat genotypesconsumed as whole grain or sprouted products, might be a goodsource of vitamin E.

In the present material a large variation in tocochromanols con-tent and vitamin E activity was found, which has also been foundin previous studies of conventionally grown wheat (Hejtmánkováet al., 2010; Lampi et al., 2008; Okarter et al., 2010; Panfili et al.,

b-T3 References

7.4–22.2 Present study1.9–10.6 Panfili et al. (2003)8.0–10.8 Panfili et al. (2003), Zielinski et al. (2001)n.d Heinemann, Xu, Godber, and Lanfer-Marquez (2008)4.2–17.0 Ryynänen et al. (2004), Zielinski et al. (2007)n.d Panfili et al. (2003)3.0–18.0 Panfili, Fratianni, Di Criscio, and Marconi (2008)18.7–39.6 Hidalgo et al. (2006), Panfili et al. (2003)30.9 Nielsen and Hansen (2008)

1794 A. Hussain et al. / Food Chemistry 132 (2012) 1789–1795

2003). Total tocochromanols content ranged from 21.9 to 37.3 mg/kg of dry matter. A significant difference in contents of a- and b-tocopherols and tocotrienols were detected among the wheatgenotypic groups. Primitive and spelt wheat were found to havelow amounts of a- and b-tocopherols and total tocochromanolsas well as of vitamin E activity, which is in agreement with previ-ous findings (Hejtmánková, Lachman, Hejtmánková, Pivec, & Jan-ovská, 2010; Hidalgo et al., 2006; Lampi et al., 2008). Variation incontents of total tocochromanols in wheat has been found in dif-ferent studies. For example Okarter et al. (2010) found lower con-tents while Panfili et al. (2003) found higher contents compared tothe present study. The differences might be due to genotypes, envi-ronmental and cultivation practices and conditions as well as todifferences of methods used for extraction and analysis. As anexample, extraction of tocochromanols in cereals without priorsaponification have lead to a lower recovery of tocochromanols(Panfili et al., 2003). Content of tocochromanols in primitive andspelt wheat might also vary due to caryopsis type. In the presentstudy, the samples were dehulled in opposition to the case in thestudy by Panfili et al. (2003).

The variation of tocochromanols content in the investigatedgenotypes indicated a great potential to use specific wheat geno-types for the breeding of organic wheat, which contains a highamount of tocochromanols in the grain. In breeding for organicallyproduced health wheat grains, the selected genotypes need to besuitable for organic production, not only in terms of nutrition butalso in terms of disease resistance, end-use quality etc. Selectionshave to be made on the basis of suitability for organic production,high levels of antioxidants and minerals and for suitability to pro-duce sprouted and whole grain wheat products. In the presentstudy, the genotypes T. monococcum, Oland 8, Lv. Gotland 6 andspelt vete Gotland have shown the highest values of total tocotrie-nols. Thus, these genotypes might be of interest to grow for highcontents of tocotrienols under organic farming systems.

5. Conclusion

The present study showed that organically grown wheat hassimilar amounts of tocochromanols as previously found in conven-tionally grown wheat. However, organic wheat grain could be agood source of tocochromanols, since organic wheat is more com-monly consumed as whole and sprouted grain when compared toconventionally produced wheat. A wide variability in content oftocochromanols is found among wheat genotypes from a diversegenetic background. The genotypes with high content of toco-chromanols can be exploited to produce varieties with high nutri-tional value. Especially, primitive wheat was found to have hightocotrienols content in the grain and could be used to develophealth foods.

Appendix A. Supplementary data

Supplementary data associated with this article can be found, inthe online version, at doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.11.141.

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