Biochemical and technological characterization of Pakistani spring wheats

Five different spring wheat varieties grown in Pakistan were selected for their biochemical and technological properties. The physical characteristics such as thousand-kernel weight and test weight differed significantly among the wheat varieties. The chemical parameters such as moisture content, ash content, crude protein, and Pelshenke value, differed significantly for straight grade flour (SGF) among different wheat varieties. Significantly the highest wet gluten (38.83%) was found in SGF of Iqbal 2000 while the lowest (28.47%) wet gluten content was found in SGF of Kohinoor 83. The dry gluten content ranged from 10.49 to 13.60% between SGF of different wheat varieties. The Pelshenke value ranged from 51.04 to 150.12 minutes in SGF of different wheat varieties. The mineral contents like, calcium, iron, zinc and copper significantly differed among the wheat varieties. The electrophoretic patterns showed the variation in regions of molecular weight of glutenins subunits with differences in their intensities in different wheat varieties. The highest numbers of HMW-GS polypeptide bands were identified in wheat varieties Iqbal-2000 (102.9 kDa, 98.8 kDa, 87.1 kDa and 80.8 kDa). The low molecular weight glutenins subunits (LMW-GS) represented approximately 60% of the total wheat glutenins fractions of different wheat varieties, and their molecular weight ranged from 32.9 kDa to 67.0 kDa. The wheat variety Iqbal-2000 showed the presence of LMW-GS of 42 kDa which play only a major role in determining the good bread making quality characteristics. The sensoric attributes of breads varied significantly among different wheat varieties. The highest scores for different parameters were assigned to breads prepared from flour of C-273 and Iqbal 2000 while significantly the lowest were given to the breads prepared from wheat variety Punjab 96. The information obtained in this study can be useful for millers and bakers for the s election of suitable variety for their intended uses.