Cereal seedlings are quite broadly used in the dietary supplement industry. The elemental composition of seedlings of five species of the genus Triticum characterized by different ploidy levels (Triticum spelta line UWM10, T. aestivum cv Torka 2n=6x, T dicoccon cv. Lamela, T. polonicum line Pol 5, and T. turanicum cv. Kamut 2n=4x) was determined by the Inductively Coupled Plasma Sector Field Mass (ICP-SFMS) method to analyze their suitability for use in the manufacture of dietary supplements as compared with a dietary supplement product made from T. spelta seedlings, which is commercially available in the European Union. Seedlings of five Triticum genotypes had similar concentrations of the analyzed elements, and contained essential microelements and only trace amounts of heavy metals. The commercially available dietary supplement had a very high content of aluminum (421.1 μg g-1 i.e. nearly 74- to 150-fold higher in comparison with wheat seedlings) and lanthanides (1.074 μg g-1 i.e. 44- to 87-fold higher in comparison with wheat seedlings). Fe, Cr, V and Nb occurred in large quantities in the analyzed supplement (262.7, 1.13, and 0.080 μg g-1 i.e. 4.0, 3.7 and 101.4- fold higher in comparison with wheat seedlings). The principal component analysis (PCA) revealed that the supplement and the analyzed wheats had completely different elemental profiles. Similarities in the elemental profiles were noted between the wheats Kamut and cv. Lamela (both wheats are tetraploid) and between cv. Torka (hexaploid) and Polish wheat line Pol5 (tetraploid). Spelt line UWM10 significantly differed from the four remaining genotypes in the elemental profile of seedlings.

21.3.2016