Changes in Phytate Content of Newly Released wheat Varieties during Different Processing Methods

Wheat (Triticum aestivum) is the most important staple food crop and occupies a unique position for more than one third of the world population. Globally, wheat is the leading source of vegetable protein in human food, having a higher protein content than other major cereals, maize (corn) or rice. In terms of total production tonnages used for food, it is currently second to rice as the main human food crop and contributes more calories and proteins to the world diet than any other cereal crops. Wheat is nutritious and provides more nourishment for humans than any other food source. The wheat flour contains various anti-nutrients like phytates, oxalates, polyphenols etc. ,. Phytic acid (also known as phytate) is a substance (anti nutrient) found in many types of plant foods, such as grains (wheat, maize, bajra etc. ,), legumes (including peanuts and soybeans), nuts, and seeds. It is found that phytic acid is found predominantly (about 80 % of it) in the bran, or outermost shell, of whole grains. The various processing methods like soaking, roasting, sprouting and malting reduces the phytic content in wheat. Two newly released varieties of wheat (WH-1080 and WH-1025) and one conventional variety of wheat C-306 were procured from the Department of Genetics and Plant Breeding, College of Agriculture, CCS HAU, Hisar in a single lot. All the wheat varieties were cleaned, washed well under running tap water to get rid of all the dust, soil particles and foreign matter, dried & ground to flour using aata chakki and processed in three different ways roasting, sprouting and malting and were used for nutritional evaluation of raw and processed wheat varieties and inference. Phytic acid content in unprocessed wheat varieties ranged from 234.15 mg/100g to 253.9 mg/100g and in processed wheat varieties from 167.18 mg/100g to 241.63 mg/100g. Processing treatments resulted in significant decrease in the phytic acid levels. Lowest phytic acid content was found in sprouted WH-1080 variety (167.18 mg/100g). Sprouting significantly (Pless than0.05) reduced the anti nutrient as compared to malting and roasting. There was reduction of 19.21 % - 28.6 % of phytic acid levels during sprouting. Thus sprouting method was found to be most beneficial in reducing anti nutrient (phytic) of all the wheat varieties.