Locally Adapted and Organically Grown Landrace and Ancient Spring Cereals—A Unique Source of Minerals in the Human Diet

Abstract

Consumer interest in local and organic produce, sustainability along the production chain and food products contributing to health, are laying the foundation for local and organic-based diets using nutrient-dense food. Here, we evaluated 25 locally adapted landrace and ancient spring cereal genotypes per location over four locations and three years, for mineral content, nutritional yield and nutrient density. The results showed a large variation in minerals content and composition in the genotypes, but also over cultivation locations, cultivation years and for genotype groups. Highest minerals content was found in oats, while highest content of Zn and Fe was found in ancient wheats. The wheat Diamant brun, the wheat landrace Öland and naked barley showed high mineral values and high content of Zn and Fe when grown in Alnarp. Nutritional yield, of the cereals evaluated here, was high related to values reported internationally but lower than those found in a comparable winter wheat material. The nutrient density was generally high; less than 350 g was needed if any of the evaluated genotype groups were to be used in the daily diet to reach the recommended value of Zn and Fe, while if the suggested Novel Nordic Diet mix was used, only 250 g were needed. A transfer from currently consumed cereals to those in the present study, along the New Nordic Diet path, showed their potential to contribute as sustainable and nutrient-rich sources in the human diet.

Climate Change Impact on Wheat Performance—Effects on Vigour, Plant Traits and Yield from Early and Late Drought Stress in Diverse Lines

“…A collection of 73 spring-wheat ( Triticum aestivum ) genotypes consisting of 14 Swedish landraces and old cultivars released from 1928 to 1990 [ 84 ], 50 wheat-alien introgression lines [ 85 ] with rye chromosomes 1R, 2R, 3R, 4R, 5R, 6R and Leymus Racemosus chromosome N in the form of translocation and substitution [ 29 , 40 ], and nine modern wheat breeding lines from the company Lantmännen were used in this study ( Table S5 ). All the wheat lines with different genetic backgrounds (old, modern, introgression lines) will be referred to as genotypes from here and onwards in this publication.…”

Nutritional Profile of the Ethiopian Oilseed Crop Noug (Guizotia abyssinica Cass.): Opportunities for Its Improvement as a Source for Human Nutrition

“…Studies have shown that mineral content in cereal grains/seeds are known to be genetically determined but also highly dependent on the variation in the soil mineral content [38,48]. Previous studies on the mineral content of a range of grains/seeds have shown a wide variation in mineral content between types of grains/seeds and also between genotypes [30,36,48]. The fact that a limited variation was found between noug genotypes in mineral composition in the present study needs to be further evaluated.…”

“…A mineral content analysis of noug seeds was conducted on two sample replicates for each sample using a Perkin-Elmer Optima ® 8300 inductively coupled plasma optical emission spectrometer (ICP-OES, Perkin-Elmer, Waltham, MA, USA) [35,36]. Each sample was ground to a fine powder, and 0.5 g of each ground sample was diluted with water to a volume of 50 mL prior to analysis.…”

Carotenoid Extraction from Locally and Organically Produced Cereals Using Saponification Method

“…In the present study, we evaluated also the stability in carotenoid content of the landraces between and within localities and the genotypes showed clear variation in this character. Previous studies on stability for minerals content in the same material have also indicated differences in stability [9,46]. Most of the genotypes showed limited stability for all carotenoids compounds between and within cultivation environments (localities) although the different barley genotypes investigated tended to show higher stability than the other cereal genotypes evaluated.…”