Becarri, in 1745, and Einhof, in 1805, were the first to study the proteins present in wheat flour, but the name ‘gliadin’ was not known until 1820 when Taddei used this name to describe the alcohol-soluble protein components of flour. Since then, an ever-increasing amount of literature has appeared on gliadin. Up to 1970, Chemical Abstracts quotes 536 references on the subject, however, in the last 8 years, over 180 more articles have appeared.