Abstract/Summary

Foxtail millet is one of the commonly cultivated, nutritionally competitive source of protein, fibre, phytochemicals and other micronutrients, as compared to major cereals like wheat and rice. Considering the potential of these grains, the high pressure processed flours of germinated (GFMF) and non-germinated foxtail millet (NGFMF) grains were studied for its functional, moisture sorption and thermodynamic properties. Germination and high pressure processing of foxtail millet grains significantly improved the functional properties of the flour. Apart from this, the moisture sorption isotherms of both the flours were determined at 10, 25 and 40 oC and the sorption data was fitted to Guggenheim-Anderson-De Boer (GAB) sorption model. The monolayer moisture content for NGFMF and GFMF ranged between 3.235 - 2.364 g g-1 and 2.987 – 2.063 g g-1, respectively. The isosteric heat of sorption ranged between -76.35 kJ mol-1 to -38.23 kJ mol-1 for NGFMF and 172.55 kJ mol-1 to -34.02 kJ mol-1 for GFMF at a moisture range of 0 to 36%, whereas, the integral entropy of sorption for NGFMF ranged between -0.404 to -0.120 kJ mol-1 K-1 and for GFMF between -0.667 to -0.383 kJ mol-1 K-1. Along with the validation of the compensation theory, the values of spreading pressures lied in the range of 0 – 0.078 J m-2 for NGFMF and 0 – 0.124 J m-2 for GFMF, while, the glass transition temperatures ranged between 82.25 to 28.67 oC for NGFMF and from 51.11 to 11.83 oC for GFMF at all three temperatures.