What’s new on total phenols and γ-oryzanol derivatives in wheat? A comparison between modern and ancient varieties

A big challenge for our century concerns discovering new foods, including re-discovering ancient wheat. Phenolic and steryl ferulates composition of Tuscan and Campania wheat samples was evaluated by HPLC-DAD-MS/MS. Cinnamic acids and flavonoids were expressed as ferulic acid and schaftoside equivalents, respectively. Agronomic conditions with a higher rate of plants/m2 promoted higher amounts of phenols in most of the Tuscan varieties. The ancient varieties Gentil Rosso (1137 µg/mg dry weight) and Carosella 2 (854 µg/mg dry weight) showed the highest phenols amount, determined by HPLC-DAD. Steryl ferulates were expressed as ferulic acid equivalents. Campestanyl and sitostanyl ferulates were found as main steryl ferulates compounds in wheat, differently from rice, millet and sorghum; 10 steryl ferulates and 2 caffeoyl phytosterols were tentatively identified. Total steryl ferulates in Tuscan and Campania wheat samples ranged from 37.6–62.3 µg/g dry weight and from 14.4–56.6 µg/g dry weight, respectively. Ancient whole wheat pasta showed 50 % higher steryl ferulates with respect to modern whole wheat pasta. The study compared for the first time the content of γ-oryzanol derivatives in ancient and modern wheat varieties.