Effect of hydrothermal treatment on physical properties of amaranth, an underutilized pseudocereal

Abstract

Rice, wheat and maize are the only three grains used globally by majority of people. This makes the cropping systems highly vulnerable to the detrimental effects of climate change. Expansion of crop sources by integrating ‘psudocereals’ appears to be a promising strategy to decrease the implications of climate change on the food security. Amaranth, an underutilized pseudocereal, has gained much attention these days because of its balanced amino acid and micronutrient profiles. However, effect of processing treatments on the quality attributes of amaranth is rather scanty. Attempts were made in the present investigation to evaluate the effect of hydrothermal treatment (HT) on physical and structural attributes of amaranth grains and its flour. During HT, amaranth grains were steeped in water at 70 °C for 3 h followed by steaming for 3, 6 and 9 min. The treated grains were dried and converted into flour. The HT had a great impact on the physical, rheological, textural and micro-structural attributes. Up to 6 min of HT led to an increase of density, porosity, water holding capacity and swelling index of the grain.

Keywords

• Amaranth
• Hydrothermal treatment
• Rheology
• Micro-structure