Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1854-11-23
Nutrition in various Grains.

/ w heat is the most important of all crops
The grain contains from fifty 10 seventy-fve
per cent. Of starch, from ten to twenty per
of fatty matter. The proportion of gluten is
said TO be the largest in the grain Of quite
warm countries.
1t is singular fact that, in all the seed Of
wheat and other grains, the principal part of
the oil lies near or in the skin, as also does a
large portion of the gluten. The bran owes
TO this much of its nutritive and fattening quail
tiles. Thus, in refining our -four 10 the ut
most possible extent, we diminish somewhat
its value for food. The phosphates of the ash
also lie, TO great degree, in the skin. The
best fine flour contains above seventy pounds
of starch TO each hundred. The residue of
the hundred pounds consists Of ten or twelve
pounds of gluten, six to eight pounds of su-
gar and gum, and ten to fourteen pounds of
water, with little oil.
Rye flour more nearly resembles wheaton
flour in lis composition, than any other it
has, however, more of certain gummy and
sugary substances, which make it tenacious,
and also impart sweetish taste. In baking
all grains and roots which have much starch
in them, certain change takes place in their
chemical composition. By baking, -four be-
comes more nutritious, and more easily di-
gested, because more soluble.
Barley contains rather less starch than
wheat, also less sugar and gum. There is
little gluten, but substance somewha: like
it, and containing about the same amount OF
nitrogen.
Oat meal is little used as food in this coun-
try, but it is equal, if not superior, in its nu-
tritiOus qualities, to flour from any of the 9TH
er grains superior, have no doubt, TO most
Of the fine wheaton -four of the northern lati-
tudes. 1t contains from ten to eighteen per
cent. of body having about the same amount
Of nitrogen or gluten. Besides this there is a
considerable quantity of sugar and gum, and
from five TO six per cent, Of oil or fatty matter,
which may be obtained in the form of clear,
fragrant liquid Oat meal cakes owe their
peculiar agreeable taste and smell to this oil.
Oat meal, then, has not only an abundance of
substance containing nitrogen, but is also quite
fattening. 1t is, in fact, an excellent food for
working animals, and, as has been abundantly
proved in Scotland, for working men Also
Buckwheat is less nutritious than the other
grains which we have noticed Its flour has
from six to ten per cent. of nitrogenous com
pounds, about fifty per cent. of starch, and
from five TO eight per cent. Of sugar and gum.
In speaking Of buckwheat or Of oats, we Of
course mean without husks.
Rice was formerly supposed to contain lit
tie nitrogen but recent examinations have
shown that there is considerable portion,
some six or eight per cent. of substance like
gluten. The per centage of fatty matter and
of sugar is quite small, but that of starch much
larger than any grain yet mentioned, being
between eighty anG ninety per cent. ; usually
about eighty-two per cent.
| Indian corn is the last Of the grains that we
shall notice. This contains about sixty per
cent. of starch, nearly the same as in oats.
The proportion Of oil and gum is large-about
ten per cent; this explains the fattening prop
critics of Indian meal, so well known to prac-
tical men. There is, besides, good portion
Of sugar. The nitrogenous substances are al
so considerable in quantity-some twelve or
sixteen per cent All these. statements are
from the prize essay of Mr.. j. III. Salisbury,
published by the New York State Agricul.
tural Society. They show that the results Of
European chemists have probably been OBJ
tanned by the examination Of varieties inferior
to ours they have not placed Indian corn
much above the level of buckwheat or rice,
from the above, it is seen to be sin most re-
spects superior to any other grain.
Sweet corn differs from all other varieties,
containing only about eighteen per cent. Of
starch. Amount of sugar is of course very
large; the nitrogenous substances amount to
the very large proportion Of twenty per cent.