
RP-HPLC Says a Mouthful About
Flour QualityBy Ben
Hardin March 5, 1997Cooks everywhere know its true: For the best baked goods, you have to
start with the best ingredients. Scientists with USDAs
Agricultural Research Service say a
laboratory test with a tongue-tangling name could make it easier someday for
flour milling companies to pinpoint the wheats that make the best flour. The test--called reverse-phase high-performance liquid chromatography
(RP-HPLC)--shows that hard red winter wheats rich in gamma gliadin proteins are
the ones with the desired qualities. Using RP-HPLC, the ARS scientists also found a close link between hard red
winter wheats gamma gliadin content and loaf yield--the amount of bread
that can be made from a pound of flour. A weaker connection was seen in hard
red spring wheats. The scientists studied 12 hard red winter wheat breeding lines grown at six
Midwestern locations. For each dozen 60-milligram flour samples, the
researchers needed only 8 hours to extract and separate proteins and run them
through RP-HPLC. The scientists foresee the test being run on thousands of wheat samples each
year before breeders grow enough seeds of experimental wheat varieties to begin
milling and baking tests. Scientific contact: Floyd R. Huebner, USDA-ARS,
National Center for Agricultural
Utilization Research, Peoria, Ill., phone (309) 681-6357, e-mail
[email protected] U.S. Department of Agriculture | |