Selenium Effect on Rye Malt Quality

Rye (Secale cereale L.) is the most important cereal crop after wheat, rice and maize. A substantial part of the rye yield is used for bread making, especially in European countries. There have been numerous studies on grain enrichment with selenium (Se), as it is known that selenium is a fundamental trace element essential for human health and in the form of selenoproteins plays key structural and enzymic roles. The main aim of this study was to investigate the effect of different selenium concentrations on quality indices of rye malt - the content of malt extract, diastase activity, selenium and total phenol content in malt. Rye grain of 95% viability was soaked and germinated at temperature +6 ± 2 °C for three days +18 ± 2 °C, using sodium selenate Na₂SeO₄ solutions (Se concentration 3 mg l^-1, 5 mg l^-1, 10 mg l^-1), and dried in an oven for 24 hours at temperature +70 - 112 °C. Germination of grain with deionised water served as a control. The obtained results showed that an increase of selenium concentration caused increase of malt extract concentration (from 74 to 80%), selenium concentration (from 0.0139 to 0.3251 mg kg^-1) and total phenol concentration (from 3.13 to 3.63 mg GAE g^-1 DW) in rye malt, while diastase activity decreased from 330 to 216.