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Evaluation of Simple and Inexpensive High-Throughput Methods for Phytic Acid Determination

  • Original Paper
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Journal of the American Oil Chemists' Society

Abstract

High-throughput/low-cost/low-tech methods for phytic acid determination that are sufficiently accurate and reproducible would be of value in plant genetics, crop breeding and in the food and feed industries. Variants of two candidate methods, those described by Vaintraub and Lapteva (Anal Biochem 175:227–24, 1988; “VL” methods) and Huang and Lantzsch (J Sci Food Agric 34:1423–1426, 1983; “HL” methods), were evaluated. The primary concern with these methods is that, due to interference of matrix constituents including inorganic P, they can overestimate phytic acid and are ineffective at low levels of phytic acid. Twelve seed flours, representing lines of soybean, maize, barley and dry bean, containing a wide range of phytic acid levels, were analyzed by a minimum of eight cooperating laboratories using three variants of the VL method and two variants of the HL method. No method had consistently acceptable (˂2.0”) “Horwitz ratios”, a measure of reproducibility, although some treatments approached that. For example, one variant of the VL method when used to assay a soybean flour with a “standard” level of phytic acid had a Horwitz ratio of 2.15. Some variants of the VL method were adequate for analyses of cereal grains regardless of phytic acid level but none accurately measured phytic acid when at low levels in soybean flours. One variant of the HL method in which the 0.2 N HCl extraction media is modified to contain 10% Na2SO4, did accurately measure phytic acid levels in both cereal and legume flours regardless of endogenous phytic acid levels or matrix constituents.

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Acknowledegments

This research was supported in part by funding provided by the United Soybean Board (Chesterfield, MO). VR would like to thank Amanda Harvey for her excellent support in the preparation of flours and reagents necessary for this study. SKR would like to thank Anja Hecht Ivø for technical support.

Author information

Author notes

  1. Amy Johnson

    Present address: National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, 9110 E. Nichols Avenue Suite #300, Centennial, CO, 80112, USA

  2. Pushparajah Thavarajah

    Present address: BOV Solutions Inc., 1105 E Garner Bagnal Blvd, Statesville, NC, 28677, USA

Authors and Affiliations

  1. USDA-ARS, 1691 South 2700 West, Aberdeen, ID, USA

    Victor Raboy

  2. AOCS, 2710 S. Boulder Drive, Urbana, IL, 61802, USA

    Amy Johnson

  3. USDA-ARS, University of Missouri, Waters Hall, Columbia, MO, 65211, USA

    Kristin Bilyeu

  4. Department of Molecular Biology and Genetics, Research Center Flakkebjerg, Aarhus University, 4200, Slagelse, Denmark

    Henrik Brinch-Pedersen

  5. USDA-ARS, Michigan State University, 1066 Bogue St., #494, East Lansing, MI, 48824, USA

    Karen Cichy

  6. Institute of Food, Nutrition and Health, ETH Zurich, Schmelzbergstrasse 7, 8092, Zurich, Switzerland

    Richard F. Hurrell & Christophe Zeder

  7. Department of Plant and Environmental Sciences, University of Copenhagen, Thorvaldsensvej 40, 1871, Frederiksberg C, Denmark

    Søren K. Rasmussen

  8. Department of Plant Sciences, University of Saskatchewan, 51 Campus Drive, Saskatoon, SK, S7N 5AB, Canada

    Tom D. Warkentin & Pushparajah Thavarajah

  9. DuPont Pioneer, 7300 NW 62nd Ave., Johnston, IA, 50131, USA

    Jinrui Shi & Lan Zhou

  10. State Key Laboratory of Rice Biology, Institute of Crop Sciences, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, 310029, China

    Qingyao Shu

Authors
  1. Victor Raboy
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  2. Amy Johnson
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  3. Kristin Bilyeu
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  4. Henrik Brinch-Pedersen
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  5. Karen Cichy
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  6. Richard F. Hurrell
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  7. Christophe Zeder
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  8. Søren K. Rasmussen
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  9. Tom D. Warkentin
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  10. Pushparajah Thavarajah
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  11. Jinrui Shi
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  12. Lan Zhou
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  13. Qingyao Shu
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Victor Raboy.

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The authors declare no conflict of interest.

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Raboy, V., Johnson, A., Bilyeu, K. et al. Evaluation of Simple and Inexpensive High-Throughput Methods for Phytic Acid Determination. J Am Oil Chem Soc 94, 353–362 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-016-2946-y

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11746-016-2946-y

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