Farro:Ancient Hulled Wheat Species for Modern Times.

The diploid einkorn wheat, Triticum monococcum, tetraploid emmer wheat, T. dicoccum, and hexaploid spelt wheat, T. spelta, collectively known as hulled or non-free threshing wheat species, and commercially referred to in Europe as “Farro”, were domesticated by Neolithic farmers in the Fertile Crescent and served, for millennia, as sources of starch and protein for peoples of the Old World. Although they were replaced by free-threshing durum (T. durum), then bread wheat (T. aestivum) species some 4,000 years ago; they persisted as relics in subsistence farming systems as animal feed and for bread making in remote mountainous regions of West Asia, North Africa, Ethiopia, India, and parts of Europe. In field and laboratory studies, all three species displayed large variability for spike and grain sizes, high protein yield, and composition; large contents of fiber, macro- and micro-nutrients; unique profiles of amino acids and fatty acids; and unique flour and dough proper­ties. Their nutritional value is attributed mainly to high contents of fiber and antioxidant compounds, high protein digestibility, and starch with high resistance to digestibility. Under controlled hydroponics conditions, they exhibited high tolerance to salinity at germination and seedling growth stage. Due to their extensive “genetic memory”, hulled wheats are promising sources of gene complexes to improve temporal stability of grain protein, macro- and micro-nutrient contents, especially iron, selenium and zinc; and baking and pasta quality. Moreover, they are the best sources for breeding wheat with higher amylose: amylopectin ratio; and adaptation to small-scale farming and low-input environments.