Potential of milled amaranth grain products in providing food with essential mineral elements

Amaranth grain is a promising pseudocereal, and milled amaranth grain products as ingredients may improve the nutritional value of food products. Twenty amaranth products from different Ukrainian varieties such as Kharkivs’kyi-1, Liera, Sem (Amaranthus hypochondriacus L.), Ultra (Amaranthus hybridus L.), and different milled fractions (flour, middling, coarse seed coat, and fine seed coat) were analysed in this study. Amaranth whole grain has 2-3- and 20-fold content of manganese, iron, copper, zinc, and calcium respectively in comparison to wheat. Flour fractions of the amaranth grain presented a reduced content of magnesium, potassium, calcium, manganese, and iron compared to their content in the whole grain. Studied amaranth grain and the milled products of different varieties revealed a significant (p>0.05) positive (0.47…0.90) correlation between all analysed essential minerals, except molybdenum, which demonstrated 0.46…0.56 correlations with calcium, zinc, potassium, iron, and copper. Milled amaranth grain products such as ingredients in bread, pasta, or cookies formulations at 10…50% substitution of wheat flour, might fulfil the daily requirements in magnesium, manganese, iron, copper, and molybdenum enhancing the nutrition value of the products.