Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Discovering ancient wheat varieties as functional foods

3^rd Global Summit on Herbals & Traditional Medicine

October 18-20, 2017 Osaka, Japan

Raymond Cooper

Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Kong

Scientific Tracks Abstracts: Med Aromat Plants

Abstract :

With the gluten-free food market worth almost $3.6 billion in 2016, there is every reason for renewed interest in ancient grains. This resurgent interest is expressed in re-discovering ancient varieties as functional foods. In particular, people affected by celiac disease have to avoid all gluten in their diet and several ancient grains may offer an important alternative. Ancient grains include chia, a forgotten food of the ancient Aztecs, quinoa which originated in the Andean region of Ecuador, Bolivia, Colombia and Peru, Triticum (wheat), in the form of einkorn, known today as farro in Italy, as a type of awn wheat and one of the first crops domesticated in the Near East. Other grains, acknowledged as gluten-free ancient grains are amaranth, eaten in Mexico since the time of the Aztecs, quinoa, sorghum, millet and teff, the main ingredient in the stable fermented flatbread, injera, in Ethiopia. A description of modern wheat is presented together with each one of the above mentioned grains.

Biography :

Raymond Cooper has completed his PhD in Organic Chemistry. Currently he is a Visiting Professor and Lecturer at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University and CoFounder of PhytoScience LLC. He has edited 5 books, most recently, Botanical Medicine: From Bench to Bedside and published over 100 peer reviewed scientific articles.