title: Metabolite profiling of wheat grains (Triticum aestivum L.) from organic and conventional agriculture.
abstract: In some European community countries up to 8% of the agricultural area is managed organically. The aim was to obtain a metabolite profile for wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) grains grown under comparable organic and conventional conditions. These conditions cannot be found in plant material originating from different farms or from products purchased in supermarkets. Wheat grains from a long-term biodynamic, bioorganic, and conventional farming system from the harvest 2003 from Switzerland were analyzed. The presented data show that using a high throughput GC-MS technique, it was possible to determine relative levels of a set of 52 different metabolites including amino acids, organic acids, sugars, sugar alcohols, sugar phosphates, and nucleotides from wheat grains. Within the metabolites from all field trials, there was at the most a 50% reduction comparing highest and lowest mean values. The statistical analysis of the data shows that the metabolite status of the wheat grain from organic and mineralic farming did not differ in concentrations of 44 metabolites. This result indicates no impact or a small impact of the different farming systems. In consequence, we did not detect extreme differences in metabolite composition and quality of wheat grains.
authors.affiliation: Institute for Biochemistry of Cereals and Potatoes, Federal Research Centre for Nutrition and Food, Schützenberg 12, D-32756 Detmold, Germany. Christian.Zoerb@bfel.de
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Zörb
authors.forename: Georg
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Langenkämper
authors.forename: Thomas
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Betsche
authors.forename: Karsten
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Niehaus
authors.forename: Aiko
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barsch
mesh_terms: D000383:Agriculture / Q000379:methods*; D000596:Amino Acids / Q000032:analysis; D002241:Carbohydrates / Q000032:analysis; D002264:Carboxylic Acids / Q000032:analysis; D058870:Food, Organic / Q000032:analysis*; D008401:Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry; D009711:Nucleotides / Q000032:analysis; D010205:Pantothenic Acid / Q000032:analysis; D012639:Seeds / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014908:Triticum / Q000737:chemistry / Q000378:metabolism*; D014508:Urea / Q000032:analysis
chemical_list: D000596:Amino Acids; D002241:Carbohydrates; D002264:Carboxylic Acids; D009711:Nucleotides; D010205:Pantothenic Acid; D014508:Urea