Wheat Germ: An Overview on Nutritional Value, Antioxidant Potential and Antibacterial Characteristics

Abstract

Wheat germ is a by-product derived from the wheat milling industry. Defatted wheat germ is the main by-product of the wheat germ in the oil extraction process. This study aims at development of efficient and low cost processing methods to transform these residues in added value co-product. In this study, wheat germ was analysed for its proximate composition, fatty acid composition, physical and chemical characteristics of wheat germ oil. The basic chemical composition analyses revealed high values of dry matter (87.37 g/100g FW), significant amounts of total protein and fat (27.69 and 8.99 g/100g FW, respectively) content and low ash content (3.08 g/100g FW).