The research was aimed to observe the effect of malting and fermentation on antinutritional component and functional characteristics of sorghum flour. For whole sorghum flour, cleaned sorghum grain was milled to pass through 40 mesh sieve. For malting, cleaned sorghum grain was steeped in 0.2% calcium hydroxide solution for 24 hr and then germinated for 48 hr at 90% RH and 27 ± 2°C. Sprout was removed, dried in hot air oven at 50 ± 2°C for 24 hr and milled to pass through 40 mesh sieve. For fermented sorghum flour, 13.3 mg% diastase and 2 mg % pepsin (on the basis of whole sorghum flour weight) was added to cooked (88 ± 2°C) sorghum flour and left for 1 hr. Lactobacillus plantarum (107 cfu/g) was inoculated and incubated at temperature 30 ± 2°C for 48 hr. The fermented slurry was dried at 50 ± 2°C in hot air oven for 24 hr and milled to pass through 40 mesh sieve. The lower yield of sorghum flour was obtained compared to whole and malted sorghum flour. Germination of sorghum reduced phytate, tannin, and oxalate by 40%, 16.12% and 49.1%, respectively, whereas fermentation of sorghum flour reduced above by 77%, 96.7% and 67.85%, respectively. There was no significant change in hydrogen cyanide in malted sorghum flour compared to whole sorghum flour, but fermentation of sorghum flour reduced hydrogen cyanide by 52.3%. Bulk density and viscosity was significantly reduced by the malting and fermentation, whereas water absorption capacity and oil absorption capacity was markedly increased by the malting and fermentation. Fermented flour was good due to reduced ANF and improved functional property despite of lower yield.

No abstract

Rice is one of the most popular staple foods produced contributing higher most in agriculture gross domestic production in Nepal. Thus, nutritional, physicochemical, and cooking properties of rice might interplay important roles in their production and farming practice, therefore, it is inevitable to understand these characteristic features. However, there has been only limited information available on such properties, therefore we aimed to examine nutritional, physicochemical and cooking properties of four Basmati varieties of rice namely Red Basmati, White Basmati, Black Basmati and Pokhareli Basmati. These rice varieties were purchased from different places in Nepal in paddy form. In this study various parameters associated with milling, nutritional, physical and cooking properties were evaluated. To measure protein contents in rice, Kjeldal method was implied. Among the varieties, the protein content was maximum in Red Basmati (7.74%) and minimum in Black Basmati (6.51%). The milled rice percentage and head rice recovery were maximum in Pokhareli Basmati represented by 72.02±0.10 and 67.46±0.42, respectively, while and minimum in White Basmati represented by 68.17±0.50 and 65.11±0.28, respectively. The kernel elongation ratio and volume expansion ratio was maximum in Red Basmati represented by 1.62 and 2.85 respectively. Water uptake ratio was maximum 3.11 in Black Basmati and minimum of 2.18 in Red Basmati. Gruel loss was found lowest 1.05% in Red Basmati and highest represented by 2.40% in Black Basmati. The highest starch iodine blue value of 0.21 was observed in Red Basmati and lowest of 0.12 in Black Basmati. The Red Basmati was found to have the better cooking quality among all varieties. Keywords

Honey samples of commercial honey bee (Apis mellifera) were collected from different bee keepers in Nepal. Total 16 different samples from Dang, Chitwan, Nawalparasi, Sarlahi, Makwanpur and Rautahat districts of Nepal were obtained, representing honey of 4 different floral sources ‘Chiuri’ (Diploknema butyracea), ‘Rudhilo’ (Pogostemon plectranthoides), Mustard (Brassica napus), and Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum). Chemical composition and bioactive components of the honey samples were studied.Moisture content, pH, total acidity of the examined honey samples was found to be in the range of 19.30 ± 0.87 to 20.15 ± 1.39 %, 3.35 ± 0.63 to 4.80 ± 0.15, 109.25 ± 2.06 to 191.25 ± 14.73 meq/kg, respectively. Antioxidant activity, polyphenol, and flavonoid content were found to be in the range of 51.51 ± 4.95 to 97.84 ± 3.75 %, 17.82 ± 1.61 to 59.34 ± 2.77 mg GAE/100g, 1.22 ± 0.65 to 3.86 ± 0.80 mg GAE/100g, respectively. TSS, reducing sugars and HMF content ranged from 77.5 ± 0.46 to 78.0 ± 0.91 oBx, 64.06 ± 1.99 to 70.76 ± 1.26%, and 49.5 ± 4.50 to 214 ± 39.20 mg/kg respectively.

No abstract