Abstract:
Wheat is a vital crop providing important nutrients for human diet along with certain B vitamins
i.e. B 1 (thiamin), B 2 (riboflavin), B 3 (niacin) and B 6 (pyridoxine) which are very important for
metabolic processes of body. These vitamins are concentrated in grain outer layer thus milling
process affects these vitamins to a larger extent and may reduce their level. These losses can be
maintained by making yeast leavened bread and a further increase in the level of these vitamins
can be achieved by escalating bread fermentation time. The present study was designed to
estimate the inconsistency in B vitamin concentrations in spring wheats, grains and milling
fractions of wheat, and also to identify the storing up of these vitamins from the grain to the
bread for identifying the wheat varieties of elevated nutritional quality. Vitamin B concentration
of ten spring wheats was determined by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC).
Different fermentation techniques (short, long and sourdough fermentation) were applied for
bread preparation. Effect of these fermentation techniques on level of B vitamins (thiamin,
riboflavin, niacin and pyridoxine) was also examined by HPLC and the products were evaluated
for their sensory characteristics. The resultant data were subjected to statistical analysis to check
the level of significance through software Statistics 8.1. Pearson’s correlation was also applied to
evaluate the interdependence of different parameters studied.
