Amino-acid content in wild rice Zizania-aquatica grain

The content of 17 amino acids and protein percentage of 5 grain samples of wild rice grown in Minnesota [USA] were determined and compared to hard red spring wheat [Triticum aestivum L. em. Thell.) and spring oat groats (Avena sativa L.). The wild rice grain tested had nearly twice the percentage of the amino acids alanine, arginine, aspartic, lysine and methionine than wheat grain. Wheat grain had about twice the percentage of cystine, glutamic acid and proline amino acids as wild rice grain. The 9 essential amino acids tested comprised 32.1 and 45.1% of the total amino acids in wheat and wild rice grains, respectively. The protein percentage was 17.1 for wheat grain and 14.2 for wild rice grain. Generally the percentages of amino acids tested were similar for wild rice grain and oat groats except for slightly higher percentages of alanine, arginine, aspartic and methionine in wild rice grain. Oat grain had higher percentages of cystine and glutamic acid than wild rice grain. The 9 essential amino acids tested comprised 42.0 and 45.1% of the total amino acids in oat groats and wild rice grain, respectively. The protein percentage in oat groats was 16.5% compared to 14.2% in wild rice grain.