Amino acid profile of four varieties of durum wheat grown in Sicily

The major use of durum wheat is for pasta products, particularly in the European and North American countries, whereas in other areas (Middle East and North Africa) also it is used as couscous and for various types of bread. The durum wheat is therefore a staple food in the Mediterranean and is one of the commodities that characterize the dietary pattern of the Mediterranean diet. During the year 2012 were made in Ciminna (Palermo) in Sicily, four fields of experimental cultivation using four different varieties of durum wheat cultivated in Sicily: Simeto, Iride, Duilio and Saragolla. For each variety were set up two different kinds of cultivation tecniques, in order to verify the influence of the environment on the final results. In particular, the technique A employed the same seeding density for the 4 varieties (2.4 quintals of seed per hectare), using the pre-sowing and coverage fertilization with respectively 30.6 and 47.25 units of nitrogen, distributed by the use of diammonium phosphate (18/46) in pre-sowing and ammonium nitrate (27%) in coverage; technique B employed a seeding density lower for 4 varieties (variable between 1.8 and 2.2 quintals of seed per hectare); fertilizing in pre-sowing was carried out with sodium superphosphate (that means zero units of nitrogen) and in coverage with 101.79 units of total nitrogen, distributed through the use of ammonium nitrate (27%) used in two different moments after the crop raised. The results show that the protein content of the different batches analyzed stood between 12.9 and 16.1% D.M., higher than the average recorded for the Sicilian crops.1 Investigations on the amino acid profile showed some differences between the different varieties and also between the different cultivation techniques . The most represented amino acid was glutamic acid which is also the one who showed greater variability among the four varieties. Even proline showed a variability in the context of the four varieties evaluated. The other amino acids showed slight or no differences among the four varieties evaluated. The survey results are partially comparable with the data available in the literature for other varieties grown in Italy