A note on the composition and nutritional value of hulless barley

Chemical and biological methods were used to determine the nutritional value of three recently developed strains of hulless barley compared with a commercially grown hull-containing cultivar in Poland. The following quality criteria were used: protein content and composition, dietary fibre (DF) and non-cellulose polysaccharides (NCP), protein (TD) and dry matter digestibility (DMD) as well as biological value (BV) and protein utilization (NPU) in rats. All tested hulless barleys had higher protein contents (15.3 vs 13.4%) but lower lysine concentrations in their protein (2.86 vs. 3.14) than the hull-containing one. The lack of hulls in barley resulted in lower insoluble dietary fibre (IDF) and insoluble arabinoxylan contents (by 44 and 41%, respectively) and in a higher soluble jS-glucan (by 58%) content. In rats, TD and DMD were positively correlated with protein content (r = 0.80 and 0.78) and negatively with IDF content (r = -0.75 and -0.95). It seems, therefore, that the nutritive value of hulless barleys was distinctly better than that of the hull-containing cultivar.