Effect of Germination on Functional Properties, Flow Properties, Physico- Chemical Properties, Proximate Composition and Pasting Properties of Finger Millet

Abstract

Millets are driven by their health benefits and potential to contribute to food security. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana L), commonly referred to as ragi, provides a rich source of essential nutrients, including calcium, dietary fiber, and various health benefits. Germination is the traditional method used to enhance the high nutritional profile and good functional properties of millet flours while reducing anti-nutritional content. Germination improves the acceptability, digestibility, and bioavailability of nutrients. The purpose of this study was to see the effect of germination on functional properties, flow properties, physico-chemical properties, proximate composition, and pasting properties of finger millet flour. Finger millet seeds were cleaned and soaked for 24 h germinated at room temperature and the sample was collected at 0h, 24h, 48 h and 72 h. Non-germinated and germinated samples were dried and milled into flour. The germination treatment on 48 h finger millet flour was optimized based on functional properties such as bulk density, water absorption capacity, oil absorption capacity, dispersibility, swelling power and solubility. There is no significant differences observed in non-germinated finger millet flour and optimized germinated flour of flow properties such as carr index, Hausner ratio, and angle of repose. Based on the results, it was concluded that optimized germinated finger millet flour had increased total titratable acidity and good pasting properties compared to non-germinated finger millet flour. The proximate composition of moisture, protein, fat, ash and fibre content of optimized germinated flour was 9.44%, 8.01%, 2.29%, 2.12% and 4.20% respectively.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.29321/MAJ.10.600003

Pages

8 - 17

Creative Commons

Copyright

© The Author(s), 2025. Published by Madras Agricultural Students' Union in Madras Agricultural Journal (MAJ). This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited by the user.

Keywords