To provide theoretical basis for development of oats and the related products and references for consumer choice, the differences in content and categories of amino acids between oats and other four crops(buckwheat, wheat, barley and rice) were compared in this paper, and comprehensive quality of different grains were evaluated. The content of protein and amino acids were analyzed . Principal component analysis and cluster analysis were applied to obtain the principal component based on amino acid content and to evaluate these grains in combination with protein content. The results showed that sixteen types of amino acids were found in all of the five crops(oats, buckwheat, wheat, barley and rice).Total amino acid content was 148.14 g·kg-1 on average. Oat had the highest total amino acid content, which was 249.93 g·kg-1. The contents of branched-chain amino acids in oat were 31.23 g·kg-1 which were significantly higher than that of the other four crops(21.84 g·kg-1). Principal component analysis obtained three principal components. The calculated comprehensive evaluation revealed that oat had the first ranking,followed by wheat, buckwheat, barley, and rice. Cluster analysis based on the difference of amino acid content separated oat from the other four crops, in the first category. Overall oats had more advanced quality than the other four crops in six aspects, including the content of protein, lysine, branched chain amino acids, essential amino acid, total amino acid and amino acid composite scores. |