Lipids in wheat from various classes and varieties

Lipids were extracted with petroleum ether and with water-saturated n-butanol from 8 hard red winter, 5 hard red spring, and one each from soft red, durum, and club wheat varieties from 2 harvests. The butanol-extracted lipids were fractionated into nonpolar and polar lipids by silicic acid column chromatography, and the two major fractions were subfractionated by thin-layer chromatography. Durum wheats contained the highest lipid contents, and the highest concentration of nonpolar lipids. The breadmaking wheat varieties had a lipid content which was consistent for the 2 years examined. The total and nonpolar lipid contents of hard red spring wheats were higher than of hard red winter wheats. The polar lipid contents of wheats from the two classes were essentially equal. Total lipid contents were substantially higher in wheats than in flours milled from the wheats. Nonpolar lipids constituted about one-half of the flour lipids and two-thirds of the wheat lipids. Concentrations of triglycerides were higher in wheat than in flour nonpolar lipids. Glycolipids were present in comparable concentrations in wheat and in flour polar lipids; concentration in polar lipids of phosphatidyl choline was higher and of other phospholipids was lower in wheat than in flour polar lipids. No. 547, Kansas Agrieultural Experiment Station, Manhattan. Done in part under contract with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and authorized by the Research and Marketing Act of 1946. Supervised by the Western Utilization Research and Development Div., ARS.