Ancient Wheats and New Perspective

[Guest guest]

Ancient Wheats and New Perspective

by Dr. Elsayed Abdel-Aal

~ January 2005 No.187 ~

 

Wheat has been used as a food grain since the last Stone Age. It can

be considered the oldest domesticated crop grown for food - dating

from 8,000-10,000 B.C. In fact, the ancient civilizations such as

Egyptian, Babylonian, Greek, Cretan and Roman were highly dependent

on wheat and barley as the principal food. Einkorn, Emmer,

Khorasan/Kamut and Spelt are among the earliest cultivated wheats

and commonly are referred to as " ancient wheats. "

 

Except for Khorasan/Kamut, each of these wheat crops produces hulled

or covered grains at harvest, i.e., intact spikelets in which the

glumes remain adhered to the grain. The attached hulls may provide

physical protection to the grains during planting, handling and

storage. The hulls can serve easily as animal feed or in some

industrial applications, but need to be removed for human food

products. Cultivation of ancient wheats has survived on a limited

scale in Italy, Switzerland, Germany and Poland.

 

During the past two decades the conservation and green movements in

Europe have promoted cultivation of ancient wheats to preserve

genetic resources.

 

 

reference book

 

At present most of the wheats grown are hybrids which

have been created from " ancient wheats " over the past 100 to 150

years.

 

The process of domestication and breeding of the ancient grains may

have produced varieties of wheat with particular characters, i.e,

high yielding and better disease resistance. However, these hybrids

may lack some of the other unique properties of the ancestral

wheats. The plant characteristics of these ancestral wheats and

related species are conditioned by genes on sets of seven

chromosomes.

 

Multiple sets of these origin seven chromosomes produce new

hybrids. The wild 14 chromosome species were first domesticated and

later evolved into modern wheats. For example, einkorn is a diploid

wheat containing 14 chromosome. Emmer and Kamut/Khorasan (durum

relative) are tetraploid wheats having 28 chromosome, and spelt

(bread wheat ancestor) is a hexaploid wheat with 42 chromosome.

 

Trends in organic agriculture and consumption of health food

products have led to renewed interest in hulled wheat species.

 

 

Spelt, for example, is found to perform well in low input systems

and holds promise for the organic grain food market. In addition, it

is believed that spelt wheat products are more tolerable and

therapeutic than common wheat products as suggested by consumer

testimonials.

 

Ancient wheats also were used in alternative and folk medicine for

the treatment of a wide range of health conditions such as ulcerous

colitis, elevated serum cholesterol, hypertesion, diabetes,

rheumatoid arthritis, depression and cancer. Current Canadian

Research1 is evaluating organic spelt and other ancient wheat food

products to learn more about their nutritional and health benefits.

 

The relationship between diet and health has become well documented.

Some of the ancient wheats have a unique composition of secondary

components or minor compounds such as carotenoids which may have

potential as functional food ingredients.

 

For instance, einkorn was found to contain significantly high level

of lutein compared to other wheat species. Lutein is the major

yellow pigment in wheat grains, and the elevated level of lutein in

einkorn wheat may pave the way for the development of function wheat

market.

 

Lutein is found to reduce the risk of age-related macular

degeneration (AMD) and cataracts and provides protection against

heart disease and cancer. In North America, the daily intake of

lutein (1.5-2.0 mg) is below the suggested level (6 mg) and is

declining due to a decrease in the consumption of the dark green

vegetables, the main source of lutein. This indicates a need for the

development of other dietary lutein diets.

 

In general, ancient wheats represent a rich source of genetic

diversity for improvement of agronomic and grain characteristics of

modern pasta and bread wheats. These species also may offer unique

nutritional, sensory and functional properties that could expand

their uses into a wide range of regular and speciality food products

such as organic foods, functional foods, multi-grain foods, nutty

flavoured wheat foods, etc. Research is needed to explore more about

nutritional and health properties of ancient grains.

 

For more information:

Specialty Grains for Food and Feed published by the American

Association of Cereal Chemists contains useful information about

some of the ancient grains regarding their nutritional and health

aspects.1

Abdel-Aal, E-S. M., Young, J. C., Wood, P. J, Rabalski, I., Hucl,

P., Falk, D. and Frégeau-Reid, J. 2002. Einkorn: A Potential

Candidate for Developing High Lutein Wheat. Cereal Chem.79:455-4572

 

 

Dr. Elsayed Abdel-Aal is a Research Scientist who obtained his B.Sc.

in Food Science and Technology and M.Sc. in Legume and Cereal

Proteins from the University of Alexandria, Egypt. He received his

Ph.D. in Grain Chemistry and Processing from a joint program between

University of Saskatchewan and University of Alexandria.

 

Before joining AAFC, Dr. Abdelaal was a Research Scientist with

Crop Development Centre at the University of Saskatchewan

responsible for research into quality and value-added processing for

ancient and newly developed cereal grains such as spelt, emmer,

einkorn, khorasan, waxy wheat, blue wheat, canary seed, etc.

[Guest guest]

just to add to the whole conspiracy paranoia --- but i also heard that

Iraq had a grain storage facility which housed some of the oldest

known grain-types of wheat in the world and that strangely, although

this facility was nowhere near any fighting or hot spots, it got

mysteriously bombed destroying thousands of these last remaining

original grains.

 

i don't have any concrete link for people to look at - this was

something that i heard in conversation, that's all. i wonder

sometimes though with this constant desire to pollute our food and

water sources - WHAT IS GOING ON??????????? and how can we, how can

we stop this. surely we must be able to fight it? we read and read

about how the cows are dying after eating GM cotton, about how birds

in Argentina are dropping dead in the middle of the sky from the GM

soya --- people are getting sicker and sicker with the same sort of

symptoms of intestinal poisoning, lethargy, immune suppressed symptoms

and still, still, still governments are not banning this lethal and

unnecessary food. WHY NOT????? why not? why not.

 

i cannot understand it. i simply cannot understand it - there is no

need to change our food - it is perfect as it is, humans have adapted

to this food source over millions of years. when SO FEW benefit from

this introduction of GM foods, when such a tiny minority of already

exceedingly wealthy people are to make a profit from it. when it

gives companies such as Monsanto control over seeds and farmers all

over the world - who could accept this? who could accept this

monstrous monopoly, this hideous disregard for nature and life, this

compulsive obsession with money above all - to the point of

destruction of all food stuffs (which we ALL rely on to survive, we

none of us can live without food or water - not ONE of us) and

peoples. how is this continuing to be perpertrated.

 

why do the governments not stop it? how can this be? for whom are

our governments working? the people who elect them and whom they

claim to represent??? or Monsanto and the interests of a small elite

group of billionnaire investors and power-mongers.

 

i cannot comprehend it. if you write to your health minister - you

get a standard letter back of basically refusing to answer your question.

 

how to STOP it. how to STOP IT.

 

and on another note, Monsanto (i believe) are in the process of

re-branding as " Serona " or something similar, i can't remember

off-hand i will have to check. Please be aware of this and if buying

pesticides or similar products don't be fooled by the new title.

 

well, i suppose we must all try to do what we can --- but the

difficulty is, for me, WHAT CAN WE DO? there must be something (other

than direct action and pulling up fields of GM crops - BUT maybe that

is the only way). i always still expect the people in power to have a

good conscience and do the right thing but perhaps that is naive.

 

 

 

 

 

, " JoAnn Guest "

<angelprincessjo wrote:

>

> Ancient Wheats and New Perspective

> by Dr. Elsayed Abdel-Aal

> ~ January 2005 No.187 ~

>

> Wheat has been used as a food grain since the last Stone Age. It can

> be considered the oldest domesticated crop grown for food - dating

> from 8,000-10,000 B.C. <snip>