International Journal of Agriculture and Crop Sciences.

Available online at www.ijagcs.com

IJACS/2013/5-16/1836-1839
ISSN 2227-670X 2013 IJACS Journal

Quantitative Analysis of Wheat Proteins in Different

Varieties Grown In Sindh, Pakistan
Shaista Khan1*, Allah Bux Ghanghro1, A N.Memon1, Ibtessam Tahir1, ,
Afsheen Mushtaque Shah1 , Mumtaz Ali Sahito1, Farah N. Talpur2, and S.Qureshi3
1. Institute of Biochemistry University of Sindh Jamshoro-76080-Pakistan.
2. National Center of Excellence in Analytical Chemistry, University of Sindh, Jamshoro, 76080-Pakistan.
3. M.A.Kazi, Institute of Chemistry University of Sindh Jamshoro-76080-Pakistan.
*Corresponding author Email: Shaista_khan787@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT: Fourteen wheat varieties (Kiran-95, Amber, Sindh-90, Sarsabz, Khirman, Jauher-18,
Mehran-89, Anmol-91, TJ-83, GP-256, GP-205, Marvi, and Soghat) collected from Nuclear Institute of
Agriculture (NIA) and one unknown from local market, were analyzed for quantitative determination of
proteins in term of suitability of wheat variety for baking purpose and nutritional point of view. The crude
protein in all varieties was found in the range 8-15%. ANOVA analysis of results revealed the significant
variation (P<0.05) in crude proteins among the selected varieties of wheat with coefficient of variability
0.065-0.713. The highest concentration of total protein found in variety Anmol (15.420.03) while the
lowest concentration was detected in Local wheat variety (8.28 0.06). The all wheat varieties soluble
and insoluble fraction were quantified; the range of albumin was found as 17.0-22.4%, whereas the
globulin content was in the range of 5.0-7.82%. The values of glutenin were 43.0-50.43%, while gliadin
comprised 21.63-27.80% of total protein. The ratio of gliadin/glutenin varied from 1.6-2.2, indicating
good quality of wheat varieties for baking purposes and have good nutrition status. The variety Anmol
ranked high and can be used for breeding purpose to enhance nutritional status of consumers.
Keywords; bakeries, glutenin, gliadin ,wheat varieties, wheat protein fractions,.
INTRODUCTION
Cereal and cereal product play an important role for food, comprising more than half of the daily energy
consumption worldwide, among all cereal wheat (Triticum aestivum L) occupy the first position due to the fact its
grain contain protein with exclusive physical and chemical property beside the other valuable nutrients such as
carbohydrate, minerals, and vitamin (Anjum et al .,1998) .Protein is considered the most important nutrient for
humans and animals, as manifested by the origin of its name, from the Greek proteios for primary, wheat is unique
among cereals and other proteinaceous plant in the milled product, flour alone is capable of forming a dough due to
its gluten content, the dough retains the gas evolved during fermentation (Hoseney, 1998).
Qualitative ratio of wheat proteins fraction provided an important information to determine the food value
(Gafurova, 2002).Wheat kernel contain 10-15% proteins which is mostly present in the endosperm, many protein in
the mature seed have either metabolic or structural role, still the vast majority of seed proteins are storage proteins
that function as a nitrogen reserves for germinating embryo (Shewry et al, 1995).Wheat protein can be classified
into four group on the basis of either solubility or their extraction in a series i-e albumin which is water soluble,
globulin which is salt soluble (diluted salt) gliadin soluble in 70% ethyl alcohol and glutenin which is soluble in
diluted acid or sodium hyderoxide (Osborne,1924). A part from the gluten protein, water soluble albumin and salt
soluble globulins constitute 10-2 2% of total flour protein (Singh and Mactchie, 2001). Prolaimin of wheat are the
major component of gluten, the properties of which determine quality of wheat flour for various technological
processes including bread making (Peter, 1990)
As we know that protein is the vital component of wheat grain and describe the wheat quality and nutritional
value of wheat flour variation in protein quantity and composition considerably modify the quality of bread making
(Branlard el at, 2001).It is reported that albumin and globulin are the functional protein beside these protein also
have a nutritional significance and influence technological properties. It is suggested that the varieties having a high
amount of albumin and globulin can be utilized in wheat breeding to have new variety with high nutritional value
(Lasztity, 1984).
Gliadin and glutinin are the seed storage protein which have no enzymatic function but these proteins are
technologically active because these proteins help in the formation of dough, for making baked products like bread,
chapatti, cake and cookies (Belderok et al, 2000), the variation of quantity of glutenin effected on chapatti making .
Gluten is type of protein compose of two main types of sub unit gliadin and glutinin polymers classified according to
their electrophoretic mobility in SDS-AGE (Shaista et al, 2011).
In Pakistan, the annual wheat production stood at 24,214 thousand tones during the year 2010-2011 (GOP
2010). Few studies have been done regarding bread properties of local wheat varieties of Sindh, however
comprehensive study of protein composition has not been done previously. Therefore present study aimed to
determine quantitative determination of protein in different verities of Sindh (Pakistan) in order to identify the
best/suitable variety for baking products (chapatti, naan, pizza, cookies and other baking products) and to explore
the potential of the selected wheat varieties for breeding purpose.

Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (16), 1836-1839, 2013

MATERIAL AND METHODS

Wheat grain sample Kiran-95, Amber, Sindh-90, Sarsabz, Khirman, Jauher-18, Mehran-89, Anmol-91, TJ83, GP-256, GP-205, Marvi, and Soghat were obtained from official organization, Nuclear Institute of Agriculture
(NIA) while one unknown variety was collected from local market.
Samples were milled to wheat flour and preserved in air tight bottled for experimental purpose. All analysis
was done in triplicate. Sequential extraction of protein was done, albumin was extracted in water .globulin in 0.005
M NaCl, gliadin in 75% ethanol while glutenin extracted in 0.25 M NaOH .Protein content of each fraction was
determined by the method of Yuhong et al (2008).
Statistical Analysis
The data was analyzed by one way ANOVA (single factor) using excel 2007 for significant F-statistics ,If
overall F-test was significant (P < 0.05), a Fachers T-test was performed to discern difference between the varieties
, the coefficient of variation (CV) was determined as reported earlier (Shouket et al, 2007).
The quality of grains can be measured by the protein percentage present in grains. Albumin and globulin
fraction of protein serve as the structural, protective and metabolic function and comprise about 25% of total grain
proteins, while gliadin and glutenin serve as seed storage protein comprise about 75% of total protein content
(Belderok et al, 2000). Objective of the present study was to investigate the variability of protein composition of 14
wheat varieties cultivated in Sindh. The level of crude protein in our selected wheat variety from Sindh showed the
significant differences (P < 0.05) with coefficient of variability (0.065-0.713). Protein content comprise in between 815% as shown in Table 2, Matsuo (1994) reported that protein content in the grain varies from 6.5-20%.
Previous studies done in Pakistan in other selected varieties of wheat from Sindh and Punjab found the net
protein in the range of 9.15- 13.80% (Ikhtiar & Alam 2007). However our result showed high content in some
varieties of wheat; there are many factor involve in variation in proteins content may be genetic or non genetic, the
non genetic factors may be environmental condition, storage conditions, location, soil and fertilizers (Igregas,
2002).The maximum amount of total proteins content was seen in the variety Anmol (15.420.03), TJ-83
(15.20.01), and Kiran-95 (14.600.01), while lowest protein content seen in Local (unknown) wheat variety which
was purchased from local market (8.280.06).
Table 1. Total protein concentration (%) in selected wheat varieties of Sindh (Pakistan)
Wheat varieties
Kiran-95
Amber
Sindh-90
Sarsabz
Khirman
Jauher-18
Mehran-89
Anmol-91
TJ-83
GP-256
GP-205
Marvi
Soghat
Local(unknown)

Total protein content (%)

14.600.01
12.610.09
13.030.06
13.070.06
10.400.01
12.85 0.01
11.330.02
15.420.03
15.20.01
11.490.05
11.800.02
14.120.02
11.410.01
8.280.06

C.V
0.068
0.713
0.460
0.459
0.096
0.077
0.176
0.194
0.065
0.435
0.169
0.141
0.087
0.724

Albumin protein which is water soluble protein has been quantified, as depicted in Table 2; it is found that
Sindh-90 variety contain the highest Albumin content (22.4%) followed by Sersabz (21.31%) while lowest albumin
level was found in TJ-83 (17.0%) variety. Globulin which is consider as minor group of total protein comprises 5%
of total protein (Yadav & Singh, 2011), Gafuroua (2002) reported that globulin protein was approximately 3-7.0% in
wheat, the comparable results for globulin 5.0-7.82% are obtained in our study (Table. 3), with the highest amount
of globulin in TJ-83 (7.82%) followed by Kiran-95 (7.52%), while the lowest globulin content was found in Local
unknown variety (5.0%) . Gliadin content was determined, which is fundamentally known as the seed storage
protein,the results of gliadin analysis shows the range (43.0-50.43%), the highest amount of gliadin found in Anmol91 (50.43%), while the lowest gliadin content was determined in Local (unknown) variety. The proportion of gliadin
content reported by (Graybosch et al 1993) was 34.1%, while comparatively high content are reported 32-43.6% by
(Heubner & Wall 1966). Our study results are correlated well with Heubner and Wall reported values.
Table 2. Different protein fractions concentration (%) in selected wheat varieties of Sindh (Pakistan)
Wheat
Varieties

Kiran-95
Amber
Sindh-90
Sarsabz
Khirman
Jauher-18
Mehan-89
Anmol-91
TJ-83
GP-256
GP-205
Marvi
Soghat
Local(unknown)

Albumin (%)

18.24
18.46
22.4
21.31
19.32
21.5
21.33
18.41
17.0
20.52
18.63
19.38
20.6
19.56

Globulin
(%)

7.52
5.32
4.86
4.75
6.55
5.26
4.83
4.82
7.82
6.42
6.0
5.46
6.02
5.0

Gliadin (%)

50.4
49.2
45.3
45.43
45.8
48.32
47.41
50.43
46.8
46.3
47.34
44.74
49.32
43.44

Glutenin (%)

22.6
22.47
26.3
26.82
24.32
23.36
23.22
26.0
26.40
25.4
24.53
27.80
21.63
25.39

Sum of
Gliadin and
glutenin

73.00
71.67
71.60
72.25
70.12
71.68
70.63
76.43
73.20
71.70
71.18
72.54
70.95
68.83

Gliadin/
glutenin

2.2
2.1
1.7
1.6
1.8
2.0
2.0
1.9
1.7
1.8
1.9
1.6
2.2
1.7

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Intl J Agri Crop Sci. Vol., 5 (16), 1836-1839, 2013

Glutenin is component of seed storage protein and main part of gluten provides the elasticity in dough
formation (Belderok et al 2000). Fu et al, (1996) reported glutenin content as high as 48.0-52.1% of total protein.
However our study results showed that the highest amount of glutenin present in Marvi (27.80%), while lowest in
Soghat 21.63%, which are comparable with the result reported by Gafuroua (2002). Saldana et al, (2011)
determine the ratio of gliadin and glutenin ranged as 0.49-1.01, while Stehno et al (2008) found 0.59-0.84%; in our
study results the ratio of gliadin and glutenin ranged 1.6-2.22, which is nearest to the result of Saldana et al, (2011).
Figure .1 shows the comparison of albumin and globulin. Albumin and globulin are enzymatic, synthetic, metabolic
proteins which regulate the protective function in plant, but in some sort these proteins also have allergenic effect
for some peoples (Horvath-Szanics et al, 2006).

Figure 1. Comparison of Albumin and Globulin in selected wheat varieties of Sindh (Pakistan)

The albumin and globulin correlated with protein quality, albumin and globulin proteins are nutritionally
important because these proteins contain essential amino acid lysine, arginine, aspartic acid, theoronin and
tryptophan. (Merlino et al 2009) reported that albumin plus globulin content ranged from 20-25% of total proteins in
different wheat varieties. In our result albumin and globulin presents about 23.78-27.26% of total proteins and our
result are in full agreement with that finding.
The gluten proteins consist of monomeric gliadins and polymeric glutenins. Glutenins and gliadins are
recognized as the major wheat storage proteins, constituting about 7585% of the total grain proteins with a ratio of
about 1:1 in common or bread wheat (Abdel-Aal et al, 1996) and they tend to be rich in asparagine, glutamine,
arginine or praline but very low in nutritionally important amino acids lysine, tryptophan and methionine (Shewry,
2007). Basically gliadin and glutnin are responsible for bread making quality of wheat flour. The quality of flour
mainly determine by gliadin and glutenins, MacRitchie (1992) had also illustrated that gluten(glutenin and gliadin)
are not only required for bread production ,but also needed for wide range of food that can only be made from
wheat (noodles, pastries, cookies) and other production.
Table 4, shows the comparison for sum of glutenin and gliaidin obtained is present study with literature values, as
evident from Table that the values are in good harmony with reported values. It has been investigated that gliadin
generally contributes the dough viscosity and glutenin required for elasticity of the dough. Therefore the ratio of
both proteins is important for bread making (Uthayakumaran et al, 1999).
Table 3. Comparison of sum of glutenin and gliaidin obtained in selected wheat varieties in present work with earlier reported
data of other wheat varieties.
Our Study values

Literature value

References

64-76%

56.25-64.48%

Sladana Zilic et al(2011)

69.12-77.72%

Stehno et al (2008)

65.83-66.36%

Abdelrahman et a l(2004)

63-90%

Emanuelson et al(2003)

75-85%

Belderok et al (2000)

CONCLUSION
Present study reveals that selected wheat varieties from Sindh, Pakistan has great nutritional potential in
term of proteins. Anmol-91 variety was best due to its high content of gliadin, glutenin and total protein as
compared to other varieties investigated. Hence Anmol-91 variety can be explored for baking products and for
breeding of new cultivars with high nutritional benefits for consumers. Furthermore the individual proteins
investigated are comparable with literature values of other cultivars around the globe.

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