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Einkorn wheat

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Einkorn wheat (from German Einkorn, literally "one grain") can refer either to the wild species of wheat, Triticum boeoticum (the spelling baeoticum is also common), or to the domesticated form, Triticum monococcum. The wild and domesticated forms are either considered separate species, as here, or as subspecies of T. monococcum. Einkorn is a diploid species of hulled wheat, with tough glumes ('husks') that tightly enclose the grains. The cultivated form is similar to the wild, except that the ear stays intact when ripe and the seeds are larger.

Einkorn wheat was one of the earliest cultivated forms of wheat, alongside emmer wheat (T. dicoccon). Grains of wild einkorn have been found in Epi-Paleolithic sites of the Fertile Crescent. It was first domesticated approximately 9000 BP (9000 BP ≈ 8250 BCE), in the Pre-Pottery Neolithic A or B periods. Evidence from DNA finger-printing suggests einkorn was domesticated near Karacadag in southeast Turkey, an area in which a number of PPNB farming villages have been found. Its cultivation decreased in the Bronze Age, and today it is a relict crop that is rarely planted. It remains as a local crop, often for bulgur (cracked wheat) or as animal feed, in mountainous areas of France, Morocco, the former Yugoslavia, Turkey and other countries. It often survives on poor soils where other species of wheat fail.

Gluten toxicity

In contrast with more modern forms of wheat, there is evidence that the gliadin protein of einkorn may not be as toxic to sufferers of coeliac disease. It has yet to be recommended in any gluten-free diet.

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