Nutritional benefits of developing cereals for functional foods

The variations in the carbohydrate and essential amino acid contents in grains from durum and common wheat, barley, rye and triticale during development were analyzed. The quantities of simple sugars and fructans reached their highest levels approximately ten days after anthesis, remained high for few days and then they decreased again. Among amino acids, the most significant variations were recorded for leucine and cysteine, which increased, and for histidine and lysine, which decreased. From the nutritional point of view meals from immature grains have a high content of lysine, fructans and simple sugars. They could thus be particularly significant for the production of functional foods.