The chemical composition of wheat and rye and of flours derived therefrom

Abstract

Considering the outstanding importance of wheat to man, curiously few comprehensive studies of its chemistry have been made. It is, however, well known that variety, soil and climate all affect the chemical composition of wheat. Our knowledge of the subject was summarized in broad fashion by Booth, Carter, Jones & Moran (1941 a, b), whilst a detailed survey of the literature has since been published by Bailey (1944). Both these publications indicate the lack of precise information on the general chemistry of flours of different extraction prepared from the same wheat grist. This is clearly a problem of great importance, particularly in war time, when the rate of extraction must be fixed at that level which guarantees, in the diet as a whole, adequate amounts of those nutrients which are supplied by bread. Accordingly, a study of the changes in the composition of flour with change in extraction was undertaken jointly by the Research Association of British Flour-Millers (now the Cereals Research Station of the Ministry of Food), St Albans, and the Department of Medicine, Cambridge. WHEAT MIXTURES USED The following wheat mixtures have been milled and analyzed. (1) A typical all-Manitoba grist. The system of wheat marketing in Canada makes it comparatively easy to obtain a sample which may be taken as representative of Manitoba wheat. In order to do so, samples were obtained from 24 different shiploads of wheat reaching this country during the months of June, July and August 1943. These originated from five different ports on the Atlantic coast and two ports on the Pacific Coast. There were 12 samples ofNo. 1 Northern Manitoba and 12 samples of No. 2 Northern Manitoba. One

Effect of fermentation on ionizable iron in cereal‐pulse combinations

“…Tannins were estimated with Folin-Dennis reagent (1.5 ml) (AOAC 1960) on extracts of samples (2.5 g) boiled with deionized water (75 ml, 30min) centrifuged (910 x g, 20min) and colour was developed with sodium bicarbonate (0.5 ml of 35%) and Folin-Dennis reagent, read at 400nm. Phytate phosphorus was estimated as per McCance et al (1945), by extracting dry powder (3 g) with HCl(l.5 N, 5 ml) at 37°C for 2 h. After centrifugation (910 x g, 1Omin) supernatant (0.5 ml) was neutralize,d with 0.5 N NaOH and then made slightly acidic before adding FeC13 (2ml,0.25%) and heating ( l W C , 20min). The precipitate was centrifuged (1140 X g, 15min), washed with 0.17N HCI, treated with 5N NaOH (1 ml) and then mixed with concentrated H2S04 (1 ml) plus 60% perchloric acid (1 ml), cooled and estimated colorimetrically using meta-vanadate reagent.…”

European Conference of the Nutrition Society

“…Benjamin (1943) also found that the increase of height of London schoolchildren in 1935-38 was maximum in late spring and minimum in mid-autumn. In the rate of growth of boys a t two public schools seasonal variations were observed by Widdowson and McCance (1944) which might be related to observed seasonal changes in the metabolism of calcium (McCance and Widdowson, 1943).…”

“…London children suffered more than children in most towns from the effects of bombing; it is not surprising that their growth should have been affected. No deterioration of average height and weight was found among boys and girls at public schools by Armattoe (1943, 1, 2) in 1942, or by Billington, McCance and Widdowson (1943) among boys in 1943. I n Cambridge, which is not included in Bransby's 21 localities, schoolchildren were appreciably heavier on the average in 1943 than in 1942.…”

“…A further investigation into the composition of flours is reported by McCance, Widdowson, Moran, Pringle and Macrae (1945) and more data are to be found in the papers of McCance (1946) and Chick, Copping and Slack (1946). Repeated estimations of the composition of commercial National Wheatmeal flour have been published (Ministry of Food, Scientific Adviser's Division, 1942, 1,2,1943, 1944, 1, 2,1945,1946).…”

Assay of the Nutritive Value of a Protein by its Effect on Liver Cytoplasm

“…Their nitrogen contents were equalized by adding potato starch in the first and second series of ,experiments and by adding sucrose in the third series. Further, in the experiments with whole wheat meal, the daily food intake was raised from 7-5 to 7-85 g./100 g. body weight in order to allow for the low content of utilizable calories in whole wheat (McCance, Widdowson, Moran, Pringle & Macrae, 1945 t (NS), not significant; (S), significant at the 5 % level; (SS) significant at the 1 % level.…”