AOSTA– Perhaps not everyone knows that Kamut is a trademark registered in 1990 by the American company Kamut International Ltd founded by an American agronomist.
Alarmist articles are periodically published both on the web and in print, or even in television reports, not least in the program Report, which denounce that Kamut wheat does not exist and that it is all a commercial hoax. So let's try to understand what it is.
Khorosan Kamut wheat is a cereal from the graminaceae family, more precisely it is one durum wheat cultivar whose official name is QK-77.
Kamut is a brand, using an Anglo-Saxon term in use, is a brand, registered in 1990 by the American company Kamut International Ltd founded in Montana by the American agronomist and biochemist Bob Quinn; the name derives from «Ka' moet» which in ancient Egyptian meant “soul of the earth". According to the company, owner of the brand, Kamut is a cereal of Egyptian origin, so much so that it was initially marketed under the name "Pharaoh Tut's wheat".
Beyond clever marketing operations, the name Kamut explicitly indicates the wheat of the subspecies Triticum turgidum ssp. turanicum produced by the US company, calledKhorasan wheat.
It is good to point out that Khorasan wheat can be grown and marketed freely by anyone, but it cannot be called Kamut, a name that can only be used by the American company that holds the patent. Kamut is therefore not the name of a variety of wheat (hence the accusations of "scam" or "hoax") but the commercial brand that a company has placed on that variety of wheat by registering it with the acronym QK-77 and growing and selling it under a monopoly regime.
In fact, Khorasan Kamut® wheat is grown exclusively under license from Kamut International, which requires the use of the organic method for its production. It is currently cultivated in the plains of Montana, Alberta and Saskatchewan, considered by the American company to be the only ones suitable for the cultivation of Kamut®. The company has carried out experiments in Egypt and Argentina, but with poor results. Therefore Kamut® is not a zero km product.
Thanks to the richness of biodiversity present in the Italian territory, there are rather rare types of Triticum Turanicum and Polonicum wheat, not registered with the Kamut brand, which are cultivated in some regions of Southern Italy, such as Saragolla wheat in Sicily, Senatore Cappelli durum wheat grown in the hinterland of Puglia and Basilicata, and Verna wheat, a variety of wheat suitable for being grown at higher altitudes than normal, typical of the Casentino area.
Given the growing interest in khorosan wheat, the academic world is also starting to develop a field of research dedicated to it.
According to a study conducted by the Department of Food Science of the University of Bologna, it would appear that the composition of Khorasan wheat differs little from that of durum wheat, but the important differences are those from a nutritional and health point of view.
First of all, khorosan wheat has greater antioxidant properties due to the high content of carotenoids, furthermore by comparing durum wheat and Khorasan wheat, both wholemeal, it is possible to note that the quantity of proteins is much higher in khorosan wheat as well as that of minerals. As regards the mineral composition, khorosan contains higher percentages of macroelements such as iron, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, sodium and some microelements such as zinc.
In 2003, the University of Bari carried out research with the aim of evaluating the suitability for the transformation (bread making) of spelled wheat (T. spelta) and khorosan wheat (T. turanicum). In both varieties, grown in experimental fields in Italy, the protein content was rather high, 18.4%, but with low quantities of gluten (gliadins and glutenins) in favor of albumins and globulins, short-chain proteins that make khorasan and spelled more easily digestible and suitable for subjects sensitive to wheat and gluten, while they are contraindicated for the diet of celiacs. And it is above all due to the reduced quantity of gluten and tolerability in wheat-sensitive subjects that make khorasan wheat one of the most interesting cereals both from a nutritional and commercial point of view.
