Cereal Chem 57:293 - 294.  |  VIEW ARTICLE
Note on the Use of Sodium Hydroxide to Distinguish Red Wheats from White Common, Club, and Durum Cultivars.

W. M. Lamkin and B. S. Miller. Copyright 1980 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

A color test employing sodium hydroxide was investigated as a method for distinguishing red wheats from white common, white club, and amber durum cultivars. A modified procedure was developed which required only 5 min and could be performed on a single kernel. Using the modified procedure, an untrained observer could correctly classify as red or nonred all 87 samples examined, which included 60 American wheat cultivars representing all classes. Yellow kernels (yellow berries) from samples of red wheats reacted the same way as did dark, hard, and vitreous kernels.