Effect of Grain Sprouting on Major Quality Characters of Wheat

Eleven Chinese winter and spring wheat cultivars from Heilongjiang province,Liaoning province and Beijing were used to investigate the quality characters of sprouted wheat.Eleven quality parameters were tested for normal grains and sprouted grains at the same time.These results showed that the grain sprouting affected negatively the quality of protein,starch and end products such as steamed bread.Significant difference in major quality characters including protein content,wet gluten content,sedimentation value,water absorption of Farinograph,development time,stability,peak viscosity,breakdown, falling number,steamed bread volume and score between sprouted and normal kernels were observed at 5% or 1% level.The reduction of gluten strength such as stability due to sprouting was more than that of protein content.Significant difference in the effects of grain sprouting on quality characteristics was also observed among wheat cultivars.Significant variation was not found for SDS-PAGE patterns of high molecular weight glutenin subunit and Gliadin of sprouted wheat.