Nutritional and Technological Aspects of Ancient Wheat

Abstract

The ancient wheat had a background as part of our diet and played an important role as the main source of foodstuff for the early civilizations in the Fertile Crescent. Among ancient wheat species, einkorn (Triticum monococcum ssp. monococcum L.) and emmer (T. dicoccum Schrank) are still cultivated in some parts of Turkey, Bulgaria, and Greece. Spelt (T. aestivum ssp. spelta), macha (T. aestivum subsp. macha), and vavilovii (T. subsp. vavilovii) are also grown in limited amounts in Germany, Italy, and Spain. They are the ancestors of the modern cultivars currently grown worldwide. Modern wheats, both common (T. aestivum L.) and durum (T. durum Desf.), currently account for around 95% and 5% of the world production, respectively. Einkorn, emmer, and spelt play only minor roles in terms of production and utilization. However, there is a significant interest in the consumption of ancient wheats since some researches have indicated that they may have a healthier and more nutritious profile than modern wheats. This increasing interest in ancient wheats encouraged studies on their usage in the manufacture of bread, biscuits, pasta, etc., as an alternative to modern wheat products. Each product of consumption derived from wheat such as bread, pasta, noodles, biscuits, etc., has specific quality requirements. The presence, amount, and composition of several components in the wheat grain impact the technological and nutritional quality of wheat. Therefore, this chapter summarizes the nutritional and technological quality properties of ancient wheats, providing a summary of the studies that have been published so far on different products such as bread, pasta, biscuits, bulgur, breakfast cereals. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.