Carboxylic Acids in Wheat, Rye and Barley

Organic acids from w heat ( Triticum aestivum), rye (Secale cereale), and barley (Hordeum vulgare, var. “G erbel” and “ Igri” ) were analysed by gas c h ro m a to g ra p h y -m ass spectrom etry. Two carboxylic acid fractions were obtained by chrom atography on Sephadex LH 20: frac­ tion A contained m ainly aliphatic acids, fraction B contained m ainly arom atic acids. The identified com pounds (50 a liphatic and 32 arom atic acids) are listed in T ables I and II. Q u a n ti­ tative analysis was achieved by calibration o f the gas chrom atogram with au then tic com pounds or — if not available — w ith closely related com pounds. The possibility to identify the orig in o f cereal food-stuff by analysis o f the organic acids is discussed.