Integrated Starches and Physicochemical Characterization of Sorghum Cultivars for an Efficient and Sustainable Intercropping Model

Abstract

Sorghum has good adaptation to drought tolerance and can be successfully cultivated on marginal lands with low input cost. Starch is used in many foods and nonfood industrial applications and as a renewable energy resource. Sorghum starches with different amylose contents affect the different physicochemical properties. In this study, we isolated starches from six sorghum varieties (i.e., Jinza 34, Liaoza 19, Jinnuo 3, Jiza 127, Jiniang 2, and Jiaxian) and investigated them in terms of their chemical compositions and physicochemical properties. All the starch granules had regular polygonal round shapes and showed the characteristic “Maltese cross”. These six sorghum starches showed an A-type diffraction pattern. The highest amylose content of starch in Jinza 127 was 26.90%. Jiaxian had a higher water solubility at 30, 70, and 90 °C. From the flow cytometry analysis based on six sorghum starch granules, Liaoza 19 had a larger and more complex granules (particle percentage (P1) = 66.5%). The Jinza 34 starch had higher peak (4994.00 mPa∙s) and breakdown viscosity (4013.50 mPa∙s) and lower trough viscosity (973.50 mPa∙s). Jinnuo 3 had higher onset temperature, peak temperature, conclusion temperature, gelatinization enthalpy, and gelatinization range. The principal component analysis and hierarchical cluster analysis based on classification of different sorghum starches showed that Jiniang 2 and Jinnuo 3 had similar physicochemical properties and most divergent starches, respectively. Our result provides useful information not only on the use of sorghum starches in food and non-food industries but for the great potential of sorghum-based intercropping systems in maintaining agricultural sustainability.

Correlation analysis on physicochemical and structural properties of sorghum starch

“…The XRD peak pattern of sorghum starch had diffraction peaks at 15° and 23° 2θ and constant double peaks at 17° and 18° 2θ ( Figure 5 ). This was consistent with the peak pattern of other sorghum starches, which were all type A crystallization ( 56 , 57 ). Although there is no difference in the XRD pattern of sorghum starch, starches revealed a great difference in crystallinity.…”

Comparative assessment of nutritional and functional properties of different sorghum genotypes for ensuring nutritional security in dryland agro-ecosystem

“…Figure 5E shows that JZ 127 had the highest SP (8.25 g/g) compared with other treatments. In our study, among sorghum varieties, SP and WS were different, which might be due to the AM content ( 9 , 26 ). Uarrota et al ( 42 ) and Yang et al ( 23 ) reported that AM inhibits the SP and WS in the physicochemical properties of cereal starch.…”

“…The Fiji ImageJ program is useful as magnetophoretic measurements in observing the physics of particle structure, scientific images (digital and scanning electron microscopy), and scattering-intensity data ( 9 , 45 , 46 ). Figure 1 shows the granule size distribution histogram and lognormal fitting of grain size.…”

“…Therefore, sorghum crop, which is an environmentally friendly minor cereal crop and recognized as healthy food, may be a solution. Nowadays, sorghum research is crucial for environmentally friendly crop and most promising candidate crop as a sorghum-based intercropping for agricultural sustainability ( 8 , 9 ). Intercropping and sorghum ratooning are popular cultivation techniques among small-scale farmers around the globe ( 3 , 10 , 11 ).…”

Assessment of the nutritional quality of weaning food prepared from fermented blends of sorghum (Ogi) and soybean

“…The weaning blends' carbohydrate contents for the 60:40 and 70:30 ratios were 55.695 ± 0.780 and 61.344 ± 0.810 (%) respectively. The carbohydrate content may be attributed to the sorghum grain's amylose and amylopectin components [44].…”