Cereal Chem. 70:298-303   |  VIEW ARTICLE

Grain, Flour, and Dough Characteristics of Selected Strains of Diploid Wheat, Triticum monococcum L.

M. G. D'Egidio, S. Nardi, and V. Vallega. Copyright 1993 by the American Association of Cereal Chemists, Inc. 

The grain, flour, and dough quality of 12 germ plasm accessions of domesticated diploid wheat, Triticum monococcum L. ("einkorn"), were investigated and compared with those of modern cultivars of T. durum and common wheat. Entries were assayed for kernel weight, test weight, yellow berry incidence, flour yield, whole meal ash and protein content, flour particle size, sodium dodecyl sulphate sedimentation volume, and alveograph parameters as well as for protein, gluten, ash, and carotene content of flours. Flour yields of einkorn wheats were analog ous to those of common wheat cultivars and far greater than those of durum wheats. Gluten from T. monococcum was weak, scarcely extensible, and rather sticky; it had a lower water- retention capacity than that of common and durum wheats. Reduced grain dimensions, high ash content, small flour particle size, and extremely high carotene content were additional distinctive features of the diploid wheats examined. The remarkably wide range of values observed for most of these attributes indicated that T. monococcum strains better suited for producing the commonest wheat-based aliments could probably be identified in more extensive surveys or be obtained by breeding. Developing free- threshing commercial cultivars of diploid wheat offers opportunities in foodstuff diversification, coeliac disease prevention, animal feed, the production of protein-rich foods, and in the exploitation of novel endosperm mutants.