African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (8), pp. 994-999, 16 April 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Effects of thermal treatments and germination on physico-chemical properties of corn flour

Prakash Bhattacharyya, Uma Ghosh, Hiranmay Gangopadhyay, Utpal Raychaudhuri^*

Department of Food Technology and Biochemical Engineering, Jadavpur University, Kolkata 700 032, India.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: utpal31@hotmail.com, urc@vsnl.in.

Accepted 17 July, 2006

Certain physico-chemical properties including viscoelasticity, crystallinity and maltose content of corn depends on the gelatinization of starch under different treatments. Three different treatments were performed; boiling in water, steam heating, and germination. The effects of gelatinization on viscoelastic property of corn starch were measured and the morphological changes of corn after different treatments were determined by scanning electron microscope (SEM). Various grooves and fissures on the exterior surface of the granules were noticed in the treated sample compared to control. The crystallinity of corn after different treatments was determined by X-ray diffraction studies (XRD). The control showed higher crystallinity than that of thermal treated samples.

Key words: Crystallinity, viscoelastic property, Instron Texture Analyzer, scanning electron microscope, and X-ray diffraction.