Assessment of nutritional value in spelt (Triticum spelta L.) and winter (Triticum aestivum L.) wheat by chemical and biological methods

The nutritional value of two Varieties of spelt wheat (Triticum spelta L.) was compared with the conventional variety of winter wheat (Triticum aestivum) grown in Slovakia and Sweden. The chemical analysis shows that T. spelta has a significantly higher content of crude protein, proteins (P < 0.001), more nonessential amino acids and significantly less lysine (16 g N, P < 0.05). The assessed values show that with an increasing content of crude protein the content of proteins does not increase proportionately. The representation of individual protein fractions, with different digestibility, changes with the variation of total N content. We did not find any significant differences between the varieties on the basis of biological test of growth in rats. The highest biological value of proteins (BVP) was assessed for the German variety of spelt wheat grown in Slovakia (75.6%) out of the tested wheats, however, the differences between the varieties were not significant. We found significant differences in excrement N output from N uptake, and it manifested itself in significant differences in digestibility of crude protein which was higher in the samples of spelt wheat (80.5 and/or 85.1%). The quality of proteins in spelt wheat is higher than in winter wheat Samanta, which is also demonstrated by higher NPU and UP values.