Joint International Conference on Long-term Experiments ...

INVESTIGATION OF MINERAL CONTENT IN WINTER WHEAT GRAIN
SAMPLES FROM LONG-TERM FIELD EXPERIMENTS
Zoltán Győri – Árpád Tóth – Diana Ungai
University of Debrecen Centre of Agricultural Sciences Faculty of Agronomy
Institute of Food Science, Quality Assurance and Microbiology
ABSTRACT
Besides the technological quality of the wheat flour consumers are primarily interested
in the nutrition-biological value (for example minerals, vitamins, etc.) of the final
products.
The assay demonstrates the results of the researches in different soils in Hungary
within the framework of the National Long-term Field Trials. The winter wheat grain
samples are from three research sites: Karcag, Nagyhörcsök and Iregszemcse. The
analyzed winter wheat grain samples are from the corn – corn - winter wheat - winter
wheat crop rotation. The applied fertilizer doses were the following: 0 – 150 – 200
kg/ha N, 0 – 100 – 120 kg/ha P, 0 – 100 – 200 kg/ha K, the other two active substances
remained the same. The concentrations of calcium, magnesium and manganese of wheat
samples are shown in this article.
The results of the analysis conducted in our accredited laboratory demonstrate that
the effect of the K and P fertilizers on the Mg and Mn concentration depends rather on
the production site, while the effect of the N fertilizer depends on the crop year. The
application of N fertilizer increased the Ca content of the wheat grain samples in all
three research sites in every statistically proved case.
Keywords: Long-term field experiment, winter wheat grain, NPK fertilization, Ca-,
Mg-, Mn-content
INTRODUCTION
Besides the technological quality of the wheat flour consumers are primarily interested
in the quality of the final product, i.e. food and the attractiveness of its exterior,
nutrition-biological value and their healthiness and usefulness for the human organism.
Most of the attention is usually directed at micro-nutrients, such as vitamins and
minerals. In human nutrition in Europe, winter wheat constitutes one of the most
important sources of micro-, and macro-elements (Mahan et al., 1996., Lagua et al.,
1996).
Pais (1981) claims that wheat grains contain 6.8 mg kg -1 of copper, 62 mg kg -1 of
iron, 34 mg kg -1 of manganese and 31 mg kg -1 of zinc. Sugiura et al. (1998) obtained the
following average results for wheat flours: protein content 15.5%, ash content 1%,
potassium content 4800 mg kg -1 , calcium content 300 mg kg -1 , phosphorous content
3200 mg kg -1 , magnesium content 1400 mg kg -1 , copper content 2.5 mg kg -1 , iron
content 27 mg kg -1 , manganese content 21.6 mg kg -1 and zinc content 13 mg kg -1 .
The variability of mineral content of wheat flours can be attributed to
environmental and genetic factors and their interaction. Several mineral elements show
high positive correlation with protein content in both flours and bran (Posner and Hibbs,
1997).
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