The purpose of this study was to evaluate the chemical parameters and amino acid content in 10 genotypes of soft Albanian wheat organically grown and collected during the summer seasons of 2014. The thin layer chromatography method was used for the identification the content of amino acids and spectrophotometry was used to determine the concentration of indentified amino acids. The results exhibited high protein content (13.73 % - 17.32 %) and relative high content of total amino acid content (6.3 % - 10.9 %). The most abundant of all amino acids was glutamic acid (in all genotypes) and cysteine (PZA 1, PZA 2, PZA 3, PZA 4, PZA 5, PZA 6, PZA 7, and PZA 10).

The main goal of plant breeding is to improve quality traits, yield and resistance to abiotic and biotic stress factors. A thousand years ago, people selected the best plants, seeds or fruits to produce seed for new crops and food for human and animal nutrition. Modern plant breeding is based on genetic principles and contributes to increases in yield and quality components (contents of protein, amino acids, fat, sucrose, mineral elements etc.). Breeders in conventional breeding programs in the last six decades have made changes to plant phenotypes, significantly improved resistance to diseases, earliness, and frost and drought resistance, and improved scientific farming practices, baking and milling technologies, and beverage production technology. Through bioinformatics and improved technology, breeders have developed ways to improve and accelerate the breeding process to combine desired traits in new genotypes as well to operate at the level of individual cells and their chromosomes. Nowadays, modern biotechnology is used to improve human nutrition, and develop genotypes with significantly higher yields and quality compared with genotypes created by conventional breeding. By genetic modification it is possible to add, modify or delete a trait without interfering between two complete genomes. However, genetically modified crops can be used after their assessment in terms of human health, food safety and the environment.

The antioxidant interactions between α-tocopherol and myricetin in stripped soybean oil-in-water emulsions at pH 4.0 and pH 7.0 were analyzed. At pH 7.0, α-tocopherol (α-TOC):myricetin (MYR) ratios of 2:1 and 1:1 yielded interaction indices of 3.00 and 3.63 for lipid hydroperoxides and 2.44 and 3.00 for hexanal formation, indicating synergism. Myricetin’s ability to regenerate oxidized α-tocopherol and slow its degradation was identified as the synergism mechanism. Antagonism was observed at pH 4.0 due to high ferric-reducing activity of myricetin in acidic environment. The interaction between α-tocopherol and taxifolin (TAX) was also investigated due to structural similarities of myricetin and taxifolin. α-Tocopherol and taxifolin combinations exhibited antagonism at both pH 4.0 and pH 7.0. This was associated with taxifolin’s inability to recycle α-tocopherol while still increasing the prooxidant activity of iron. The combination of α-tocopherol and myricetin was found to be an excellent antioxidant strategy for oil-in-water emulsions at pH values near neutrality.

Variability in the percentage of seed germination was studied in four winter barley cultivars ('Jagodinac', 'Premium', 'NS 489' and 'NS 495'), grown under four nitrogen application rates (control N 0 =0, N 1 =20, N 2 =40 and N 3 =60 kg ha -1 ) during two years of the experiment. The experiment was carried out as a randomised block design in 5m 2 plots and with four replications. In both experimental years, the average seed germination was over 90.0% for all barley cultivars and in each nitrogen fertilisation treatment. The maximum seed germination percentage was 98.0% in 'Premium' in the second year in the treatment N 3 =60 kg ha -1 , and minimum germination percentage (90.1%) was also recorded in 'Premium' 'in the first year of the experiment in the unfertilised control (N 0 =0 kg ha -1 ). The obtained values of seed germination significantly differed among cultivars in the first and second year. Also, the average values of seed germination under four N fertilisation treatments were significantly different in both years. The average values for both years of the experiment were significantly different among cultivars and treatments. The values of seed germination for all cultivars increased with increasing nitrogen rates, suggesting that phenotypic variability in seed germination was affected by nitrogen fertilisation, which indicated a high value (81.87%) of the component of phenotypic variance for seed germination.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate some of the soft wheat genotypes cultivated in Albania, concerning the technological and rheological characteristics of the produced dough, in regard to further cultivation. The obtained results for the soft lines of wheat collected during the summer seasons of 2013 and 2014 showed high contents of protein (13.36%-17.42%), also strong water absorption capacity (59.70%-67.40%) with high values of Mixolab parameter C2 (0.24Nm-0.54Nm), thus predicting good protein quality and very strong gelatinization C3 (1.42Nm-1.96Nm). With the exception of genotype PZA 4, the other genotypes were characterized by quite high viscosity when cold (retro gradation) (1.54Nm-2.96Nm). The statistical evaluation showed that wet gluten content has a statistically significant negative correlation with Mixolab parameters C2 (r =-0.607, p ˂ 0.01), while the stabilities of the dough showed statistically significant correlation with protein content and gluten index (r =-0.543 and r = 0.551, respectively).