EVALUATION OF PHYSICO-FUNCTIONAL CHARACTERISTICS AND NUTRITIONAL STATUS OF SOME PIGMENTED WHOLE GRAIN AVAILABLE IN BANGLADESH

Abstract

Maize and rice are the highest consumed cereals in the world. Pigmented and nonpigmented maize can be utilized like rice if its complete properties are known. There

are

some pigmented and non-pigmented maize and rice varieties available in Bangladesh for human consumption. The present research was conducted to evaluate and compare physico-functional and nutritional properties of colored maize and rice. Maize such as-yellow maize, red maize, white maize, purple maize, mixed colored maize, deep red maize; and rice such as red rice was used for investigation. Study revealed that white maize was the brightest grain among the samples with its highest L* value while purple maize, deep red maize and red rice showed the lowest L* value. The lowest bulk density (0.565 ± 0.005 g/mL) and % change (15.05 ± 0.31%) in sedimentation was recorded for purple maize flour but white maize flour showed the highest change in sedimentation value (35.43 ± 0.59%). All most all samples were comparable for proximate composition. Red maize and purple maize contained the highest amount of ash (2.27 ± 0.059% and 2.27 ± 0.05% respectively) while mixed maize contained the lowest amount of ash (1.22 ± 0.09%). Mixed maize contained the highest crude fibre (4.17 ± 0.049%) which was comparable to red rice on the other hand white maize had the lowest crude fibre (3.31 ± 0.06%). Purple maize along with mixed maize and deep red maize had the highest carbohydrate content (72 to 73%) whereas local mixed maize and deep red maize had the lowest protein content (6%). Red maize had the highest protein content which was comparable to yellow maize, and the lowest carbohydrate content (65.76 ± 0.57%) which was comparable to white maize and red rice. Red rice performed better than the other samples for oil content (6.19%). In case of Mg and S content, all most all samples showed similarity; and the purple maize, mixed maize and deep red maize were promising for Ca content. White maize had the highest amount of Zn (19.79 ± 0.1 mg/100 g) while it had the lowest amount of Ca (140.16 ± 10.8 mg/100 g), and Mn (0.51 ± 0.05 mg/100 g). Yellow maize showed the highest amount of Fe (4.99 ± 0.37 mg/100 g); and the lowest Cu content (0.14 ± 0.02 mg/100 g) which was similar to mixed maize (0.13 ± 0.01 mg/100 g). The red rice was poor in Zn (4.02 ± 0.13 mg/100 g) and Fe (0.61 ± 0.14 mg/100 g) content. Overall, whole grain maize and rice samples were comparable from the physico-functional and nutritional properties. Therefore, whole grain pigmented and non-pigmented maize can be utilized like rice as rich source of nutrition as regularly consumed cereals to combat nutritional deficiency.