Novel food and non-food uses for sorghum and millets.

The growing public awareness of nutrition and health care research substantiates the potential of phytochemicals such as polyphenols and dietary fiber on their health beneficial properties. Hence, there is in need to identify newer sources of neutraceuticals and other natural and nutritional materials with the desirable functional characteristics. Finger millet (Eleusine coracana), one of the minor cereals, is known for several health benefits and some of the health benefits are attributed to its polyphenol and dietary fiber contents. It is an important staple food in India for people of low income groups. Nutritionally, its importance is well recognised because of its high content of calcium (0.38%), dietary fiber (18%) and phenolic compounds (0.3–3%). They are also recognized for their health beneficial effects, such as anti-diabetic, anti-tumerogenic, atherosclerogenic effects, antioxidant and antimicrobial properties. This review deals with the nature of polyphenols and dietary fiber of finger millet and their role with respect to the health benefits associated with millet.

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Health benefits of finger millet (Eleusine coracana L.) polyphenols and dietary fiber: a review

Millets are a major food source in arid and semi-arid parts of the world. Millets are good sources of energy.They provide protein, fatty acids, minerals, vitamins, dietary fibre and polyphenols. Typical millet proteincontains high quantity of essential amino acids especially the sulphur containing amino acids (methionine andcysteine). Processing millet by milling removes the bran and germ layers that are rich in fibre andphytochemicals, causing significant loss. The millets are source of antioxidants, such as phenolic acids andglycated flavonoids. Millet foods are characterized to be potential prebiotic and can enhance the viability orfunctionality of probiotics with significant health benefits. The nutritional significance of millets demands foran examination of the nutritional characteristics and functional properties of different millet cultivars as well asdeveloping value added products from millets.

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Millets: nutritional composition, some health benefits and processing - a review

Starches were isolated from grains of waxy, heterowaxy, and normal sorghum. To study the relationship between starch structure and functionality and guide applications of these starches, amylose content, amylopectin chain-length distributions, gelatinization and retrogradation, pasting properties, dynamic rheological properties, and in vitro enzyme digestion of raw starches were analyzed. Heterowaxy sorghum starch had intermediate amylose content, pasting properties, and dynamic rheological properties. Stress relaxation was a useful indicator of cooked starch cohesiveness. Cooked heterowaxy sorghum starch (10% solids) had a viscoelastic-solid type of character, whereas cooked waxy sorghum starch behaved like a viscoelastic liquid. Amylopectin of normal sorghum starch had a slightly higher proportion of chains with degree of polymerization (DP) of 6-15 (45.5%) compared with amylopectin of heterowaxy starch (44.1%), which had a gelatinization peak temperature 2 °C higher than normal sorghum starch. Heterowaxy sorghum starch contained significantly lower rapidly digestible starch (RDS) and higher resistant starch (RS) than waxy sorghum starch.

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Structure and Functional Properties of Sorghum Starches Differing in Amylose Content

Review of Finger millet (Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn): A power house of health benefiting nutrients

Four different sorghum genotypes, white normal (WNO), white waxy (WWX), white heterowaxy (WHWX), and brown normal (BNO), were decorticated in a pilot-plant decorticator mill and then roller-milled into brewing grits. Grain hardness values determined with the tangential abrasive dehulling device mill indicated that the BNO sorghum had the softest endosperm and yielded the lowest amount of decorticated kernels. Decorticated kernels had lower protein, crude fiber, ash, and color scores and higher starch contents than their respective whole kernels. The yield of brewing adjuncts from decorticated WNO, WWX WHWX, and BNO were 87.4, 89.9, 90.0, and 81 %, respectively. Worts produced from WWX brewing adjuncts filtered faster than the heterowaxy and normal counterparts. In practical terms, all sorghum worts, standardized to 14°P, had similar pH, viscosity, α-amino nitrogen, and color scores. The fermentable carbohydrate content of the BNO sorghum wort was slightly lower when compared with all of the white sorghum worts. White sorghums with hard and waxy endosperms were the most suitable for use as brewing adjuncts.

Production of brewing adjuncts and sweet worts from different types of sorghum

Cereals are the major source of energy, protein, B vitamins, and minerals for the current world population estimated in more than 7.3 billion people. Cereals are considered primarily as caloric or starchy foods and as an important source of dietary fiber. However, their protein quality, especially for infants, is marginal. Cereals are important sources of phytochemicals such as phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins, phytosterols, carotenoids, policosanols, and phospholipids, which diminish chronic diseases and prevent cancer. Milling removes the pericarp and germ and lowers protein, dietary fiber, minerals, vitamins, fat, and important nutraceuticals. Sprouting and fermentation improve the nutritional and nutraceutical values of cereal-based products.

CEREALS | Dietary Importance

Different concentrations of sorghum diastatic malt (SDM) were added to pregelatinized pastes from regular maize flour with the aim of hydrolyzing the starch to produce liquefied foods with 15% solids. Viscosities of the blends decreased as the concentration of SDM increased. Addition of 6.66% SDM based on total amount of solids reduced viscosity by ≈50% when compared with a food that did not contain any SDM. Addition of 33.3 or 46.6% SDM reduced viscosity by ≈70 or 75%, respectively. Most of the reduction in viscosity occurred within 1–3 min of incubation with warm water. Weanling rats were fed a combination 33.3% SDM and 66.6% of either quality protein maize (QPM), regular maize (RMZ) or decorticated pearl millet (DPM) to estimate protein efficiency ratios (PER), protein digestibility, biological value (BV), and net protein utilization (NPU). Rat growth was positively correlated with dietary lysine content and essential amino acid (EAA) scores; therefore, animals fed QPM weanling food had signif...

Production and Nutritional Evaluation of Liquefied Weaning Foods from Malted Sorghum, Quality Protein Maize, and Other Cereals

Substrate and product profiles were compared during lager beer fermentations of a commercial wort and a wort produced from waxy sorghum grits inoculated with yeast cultured in wort or yeast-malt me...

S. O. Serna Saldivar

Papers

Production of brewing adjuncts and sweet worts from different types of sorghum

CEREALS | Dietary Importance

Production and Nutritional Evaluation of Liquefied Weaning Foods from Malted Sorghum, Quality Protein Maize, and Other Cereals

Comparisons between a Commercial Wort and a Waxy Sorghum Wort Fermented into Lager Beer, with Emphasis on Yeast Growth and Ethanol Production

Cereals: Dietary Importance