Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

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Food Chemistry
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/foodchem

Quality characteristics of biscuits prepared from nger millet seed coat based
composite our
Rateesh Krishnan a, Usha Dharmaraj a,, R. Sai Manohar b, N.G. Malleshi a
a
b

Department of Grain Science and Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570 020, India
Department of Flour Milling, Baking and Confectionery Technology, Central Food Technological Research Institute, Mysore 570 020, India

a r t i c l e

i n f o

Article history:
Received 11 March 2010
Received in revised form 9 February 2011
Accepted 29 April 2011
Available online 5 May 2011
Keywords:
Finger millet seed coat
Composite our
Pasting proles
Farinograph characteristics
Biscuits
Sensory evaluation

a b s t r a c t
Finger millet seed coat is an edible material and contains good proportion of dietary bre, minerals and
phytochemicals. The seed coat matter (SCM) forms a by-product of millet milling, malting and decortication industries and can be utilised as composite our in biscuit preparation. The SCM from native, malted
and hydrothermally treated millet contained 9.512% protein, 2.63.7% fat and 4048% dietary bre,
besides 35% polyphenols and 700860 mg/100 g of calcium. The biscuits prepared using the composite
our were of crisp texture and exhibited breaking strength of 14801690 g compared to control biscuits
(1560 g). The biscuits were of mild grey colour (DE = 4050) and exhibited higher protein, dietary bre
and calcium contents. The sensory evaluation of the biscuits indicated that 10% of SCM from native and
hydrothermally processed millet and 20% from malted millet could be used in composite biscuit our.
2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Finger millet or ragi (Eleusine coracana) is an important minor
cereal in the semi-arid regions of Africa and India (Hilu & Dewet,
1976) and forms one of the staple cereals for a wide segment of
the population. The millet is unique among the minor cereals because of its superior nutritional qualities and several health benets. It is a rich source of dietary bre, calcium and phytochemicals
with nutraceutical potential (Malleshi & Hadimani, 1993). The seed
coat of the millet, which forms about 15% of the kernel, is a rich
source of calcium, dietary bre and polyphenols (Chethan & Malleshi, 2007).
Generally, the millet is pulverised and the whole meal is utilised
for preparation of food products. Even though, the seed coat of the
millet is edible, it imparts chewy texture and dark colour to the food
products and hence its separation is desired to prepare the product
of enhanced consumer appeal. Hence, preparation of millet our almost free from the seed coat by incipient moist conditioning, pulverising and sieving the native as well as the malted millet and also by
decortication of the hydrothermally processed millet is being practiced (Malleshi, 1989; Shobana & Malleshi, 2007). Thus, the seed coat
from native, malted and hydrothermally treated millet forms a byproduct of the millet processing industries. Since, the seed coat matter is an edible component of the millet, its utilisation as an adjunct
Corresponding author. Tel.: +91 821 2510843; fax: +91 821 2517233.
E-mail address: ushasdharmaraj@yahoo.co.in (U. Dharmaraj).
0308-8146/$ - see front matter 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.foodchem.2011.04.107

in cereal foods was thought of and accordingly, preparation of glucotype biscuits was explored. Biscuits being one of the best avenues to
reach all segments of the population, several studies have been
carried out to prepare high bre biscuits by incorporation of bre
from various sources in cookies (Vratania & Zabik, 1978) and other
bakery products like bread (Abdul Hamid & Siew Luan, 2000). Use
of composite our based on wheat and other cereals including minor
millets in bakery products is becoming popular because of the economic and nutritional advantages (Dasappa, Sai Manohar, Jyotsna,
& Venkateshwara Rao, 2004; Eneche, 1999). There are several reports on usage of nger millet for preparation of composite our
and biscuits (Jisha & Padmaja, 2011; Saha et al., 2011). However,
using seed coat matter from nger millet as an ingredient in composite our is one of the unique approaches to enhance the nutritional value of the biscuits. In this context, preliminary studies
were conducted by Rateesh Krishnan, Ushakumari, Sai Manohar,
and Malleshi (2008), wherein, use of seed coat matter from native,
malted and hydrothermally processed nger millet was explored.
However, the study did not include the detailed quality characteristics of the biscuits prepared from such composite our. Malting generally hydrolyses some portion of the starch and increases the
activity of amylases in nger millet (Malleshi, Desikachar, &
Tharanathan, 1986a). Hydrothermal treatment signicantly alters
the nutrient prole and functional properties of nger millet (Usha
Dharmaraj & Malleshi, 2010; Ushakumari, 2009). Hence, changes
in the seed coat material of these differently processed millet
samples may also be expected. In view of this, the present study

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R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

was aimed to determine the quality characteristics of the nger millet seed coat and the biscuits prepared from the composite our of
the millet seed coat matter and wheat.

minimum <105 lm particle size was required. Hence, all the three
seed coat matter were pulverised in a hammer mill to prepare the
meal of <105 lm particle size and evaluated for their physicochemical properties.

2. Materials and methods

2.1. Materials
Finger millet (GPU 28 Variety) procured from University of Agriculture Sciences, Bangalore, India, was cleaned to remove extraneous matter, deglumed in an Engleburg huller (M/s Sri Ganesha
Engineering Works, Chennai, India) and used for milling, malting
and decortication of the millet for isolating the seed coat rich fraction. Pepsin, pancreatin, a-amylase, amyloglucosidase and gallic
acid were procured from Sigma Chemical Co., St. Louis, MO, USA.
Phytic acid/total phosphorus kit was purchased from Megazyme
International Ireland Ltd., Bray, Ireland. Reference mineral standard solutions for atomic absorption spectrometry (AAS) were procured from Merck Specialities Pvt. Ltd., Mumbai, India. All other
chemicals used were of analytical grade.
2.2. Methods
2.2.1. Preparation of seed coat matter from
2.2.1.1. Native millet. About 5 kg of cleaned millet was sprayed with
250 mL of water, mixed well, equilibrated for about 10 min and
subjected to sequential grinding in a hammer mill (Apex Constructions Ltd., England) and sieving (a sieve of 105 lm). The +105 lm
fraction was collected and pulverised again followed by sieving.
The process was repeated for the third time and the +105 lm fraction, rich in seed coat matter was collected (Chethan & Malleshi,
2007). The yield was calculated as

Yieldg=100g

Weight of the seed coat matter

Weight of seed coat matter endosperm rich fraction

2.2.1.2. Malted millet. About 5 kg of cleaned millet was steeped in

excess water for 10 h, spread on a wet cloth with a bed thickness
of about 1 inch and allowed to germinate for 48 h, the sprouts were
dried, de-vegetated and kilned to prepare the malt. The malted
millet was moist conditioned with 7% (v/w) of water and pulverised (Malleshi & Desikachar, 1979). The pulverised meal was sieved
through 105 lm sieve and the +105 lm fraction was subjected to
sequential milling and the seed coat matter was collected. The
yield was calculated as explained for that of the native millet.
2.2.1.3. Hydrothermally treated millet. About 5 kg of nger millet was
steeped for about 10 h at 30 2 C in excess water and the excess
water was removed by draining. The steeped millet was spread in
steel trays (80  40  3 cm) in about 2.5 cm bed thickness and
steamed in an autoclave (Krauss Maffee Munchen, Germany) at
atmospheric pressure (98 1 C) for 30 min. The steamed material
was dried in a mechanical drier maintained at 38 2 C to 13 1 g/
100 g moisture content to prepare hydrothermally treated millet
(HTM). The HTM was decorticated in a corborandum disc mill (Muhlenbau Agencies, Bangalore, India) according to Ushakumari (2009).
The seed coat matter (+600 lm), decorticated head grains as well
as brokens were equilibrated and weighed to calculate the yield

Yieldg=100g

Weight of the seed coat matter

Weight of head grians brokens husk

The seed coat matter (SCM) from the native, malted and
hydrothermally treated millet exhibited coarse particle size.
However, for the preparation of composite ours, a meal of

2.2.2. Formulation of composite our and preparation of biscuits

The preliminary studies indicated that, incorporation of the SCM
up to 20% level was desirable and beyond that, the quality of the biscuits affected adversely. Accordingly, the wheat our was substituted with SCM from the native, malted and hydrothermally
treated millet, separately, at 10% and 20% levels to prepare the composite ours. The composite our from native SCM at 10% and 20%
levels were termed as C-1 and C-2 respectively, while that from
malted SCM were termed as C-3 and C-4 and from hydrothermally
treated SCM as C-5 and C-6 respectively. To prepare the biscuits, sugar (90 g) and shortening (60 g) (Marvo Brand, Brooke Bond Lipton
India Ltd., Calcutta, India) were creamed in a Hobart mixer (N-50)
with a at beater, for 2 min at 61 rpm and to the cream, water containing sodium bicarbonate (1.5 g), ammonium bicarbonate (3 g)
and sodium chloride (3 g) were added and mixed further for 5 more
min at 125 rpm to obtain a homogeneous cream. To the cream, each
of the composite ours (300 g) were added and mixed continuously
to form homogeneous dough and sheeted using a rolling pin to a
thickness of 3.5 mm using aluminium platform and frame. Biscuits
were shaped with a cutter of 51 mm diameter and baked on aluminium trays at 205 C for 10 min, cooled for 30 min and stored in airtight tins for 24 h and evaluated for the quality characteristics and
sensory attributes (Sai Manohar & Haridas Rao, 1999).

2.3. Physico-chemical characteristics of seed coat matter

2.3.1. Colour
The colour of the SCM was measured in accordance with CIE L,
a, b colour space system based on the tristimulus value. The lightness (L), redness (+ve a), yellowness (+ve b) and the magnitude
of total colour difference (E) values were measured by placing the
samples on the port of 1 inch diameter of the colour measuring
system (Lab Scan XE Hunter Lab Instruments, Virginia, USA). A positive value of a indicates the magnitude of reddish component,
while its negative value shows that of greenish component. On
the other hand, a positive value of b shows yellowish component
and its negative indicates bluish component. The L, a, b values
were recorded and DE values [difference of reection value between the standard white (Barium sulphate) and that of the sample] were calculated (Kimura, Bhattacharya, & Ali, 1993).

2.3.2. Bulk density

The volume of 100 g of the meals was measured in a measuring
cylinder (250 mL) after tapping the cylinder on a wooden plank until no visible decrease in volume was noticed, and based on the
weight and volume, the apparent (bulk) density was calculated
(Jones, Chinnaswamy, Tan, & Hanna, 2000).

2.3.3. Water absorption capacity and water solubility index

One gram of each of the samples mixed with 10 mL of water
was incubated for 30 min in water bath maintained at 30 C and
also at 97 C, centrifuged at 1750g (3500 rpm) for 25 min and the
weight of the residue was noted to calculate the water absorption
capacity (Bello, Tolaba, & Surez, 2004). The supernatant transferred
into a pre-weighed petriplate was evaporated to dryness on a
water bath and dried in an air oven maintained at 105 C for 5 h.
Based on the dry weight of their residue, the percentage solubles
was calculated (Stone & Lorenz, 1984).

R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

2.3.4. Viscosity
A 10% (w/v) slurry of the seed coat matter was prepared by dispersing 10 g of the same in 90 mL of distilled water and the contents were mixed well and equilibrated for 30 min with
occasional stirring at 30 C. The viscosity of the slurry was measured in a Brookeld Viscometer (Model RV, Brookeeld Engineering Inc., Stoughton, USA) using appropriate spindles rotating at
100 rpm, to record cold paste viscosity. Subsequently, the samples
were heated to boiling in a water bath, cooled to 30 C and the
cooked paste viscosity was measured (Brandtzaeg, Malleshi, Svanberg, Desikachar, & Mellander, 1981).
2.3.5. Nutrient composition
Nutrient composition of the SCM from native, malted and
hydrothermally treated millet were determined by standard AACC
Methods (2000). The total carbohydrate contents of the samples
were determined by difference method. The total calcium was estimated by precipitation as oxalate whereas zinc and iron contents
were determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometry
(AOAC, 2000). The total polyphenols were extracted using HCl
methanol and assayed by FolinCiocalteu method with gallic acid
as a standard (Singleton, Orthofer, & Lamuela-Raentos, 1995).
The total phosphorus and phytate content of the samples were
determined by using Megazyme assay kit. For the purpose, the inositol phosphates were extracted with mild acid followed by treatment with a phytase that is specic for phytic acid (IP6) and the
lower myo-inositol phosphate forms (i.e. IP2, IP3, IP4 and IP5),
which on treatment with alkaline phosphatase ensures the release
of the nal phosphate from myo-inositol phosphate (IP1) which is
relatively resistant to the action of phytase. The total phosphate released is measured using a modied colorimetric method and given as grams of phosphorus per 100 g of sample material (Kasim
& Edwards, 1998).

501

triple beam snap (also called three-point break) technique (Gaines,

1991; Sai Manohar & Haridas Rao, 1997) using an Instron Universal
Testing Instrument. The biscuits were placed on two parallel
wooden bars. Weights were added on the biscuit until the biscuit
is snapped. The least weight that caused the breaking of the biscuit
was regarded as the break strength of the biscuit. An average of six
independent determinations was recorded.
2.6. Sensory evaluation
The sensory attributes, colour (10), surface characteristics (10),
crumb colour (10), texture (25) and eating quality (25), were evaluated by a trained panel consisting of ten members and the data
was evaluated statistically (Watts, Ylimaki, Jaffery, & Elias, 1989).
Based on the physical characteristics and sensory evaluation of
the biscuits, it was observed that the incorporation of the SCM from
native and hydrothermally treated millet at 10% level and from
malted millet at 20% level was highly desirable or in other words
the biscuits prepared from the composite ours C-1, C-4 and C-5
exhibited desirable quality characteristics. Hence, the biscuits prepared from the composite ours C-1, C-4 and C-5 were analysed
for the nutrient composition as explained in the Section 2.3.5.
2.7. Statistical analysis
Values were calculated per 100 g of dry matter. The entire
experiments were performed in triplicates, and data are presented
as mean standard deviation (SD). All statistical analysis was done
using Microsoft Excel 2007 (Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA).
Data were assessed for signicant difference employing t-test
and were considered to be statistically signicant at p < 0.05.
3. Results and discussions

2.4. Dough characteristics of the composite our

3.1. Physico-chemical characteristics of seed coat matter
2.4.1. Pasting proles
A 12% (w/v) slurry of each of the composite our taken in the
bowl of the amylograph was heated to raise temperature from 30
to 92 C at the rate of 7.5 C/min, maintained at 92 C for 1 min
and cooled to 50 C at the same rate and the changes in the viscosity was recorded in a Brabender Viscoamylograph (Model No.
803202, Brabender, Duisburg, Germany).
2.4.2. Farinographic characteristics
Water absorption and mixing properties of dough were determined by Brabender Farinograph (Model No. 810108004, Brabender, Duisburg, Germany), using a 50 g bowl, by AACC (2000). Fifty
gram of each of the composite ours, on 14% moisture basis, were
kept in the bowl and during mixing, water was added from the
burette to give a dough consistency of 500 BU and the following
parameters were determined from the resulting Farinogram: (a)
percentage absorption of water, (b) dough development time
(DDT), (c) dough stability (DS) and (d) tolerance index (TI).
2.5. Physical characteristics of the biscuits
The colour of the biscuits were measured similar to that of SCM
and an average of six individual determinations was considered.
The diameter of the biscuit (D) was measured by placing six biscuits edge to edge. The biscuits were rotated by 90 and the diameter was measured again. The thickness (T) was measured by
stacking six biscuits one above other, and also by restacking in different order and measuring them again to get the average thickness in centimetres, according to standard AACC method (2000).
The breaking strength of biscuits was measured by following the

The yield and the physicochemical properties of the seed coat

matter from native (NM-SCM), malted (MM-SCM) and hydrothermally treated millet (HT-SCM) are presented in Table 1. The yields
of NM-SCM and MM-SCM were comparable (25 and 26 g/100 g)
whereas, that of the HT-SCM was only 13 g/100 g. Tempering the
millet with water induces leathery texture to the seed coat and reduces its pulverisability, which enables its separation by sieving.
However, the seed coat matter contained a small portion of the
endosperm. The lower yield in the case of HT-SCM is due to pearling of the seed coat tissue without the adhering endosperm portion, as the hydrothermal treatment renders it harder (Shobana &
Malleshi, 2007). The yield and composition of the seed coat matter
of the SCM reveals that the HT-SCM contained comparatively less
endosperm portion than the other SCM. The colour parameters,
namely the L, a, b and DE values substantiates this observation.
The lightness values for the NM-SCM (51) and the MM-SCM (46)
were higher than that of the HT-SCM (34) and the corresponding
DE for the HT-SCM was highest (57.5) followed by MM-SCM
(45.9) and NM-SCM (41.4). However, there was no signicant
change in the redness values for all the samples, while yellowness
was highest for NM-SCM (11.1) followed by MM-SCM (9.7) and
HT-SCM (7.6).
Wide variations in the water absorption capacity (WAC) at 30 C
and 97 C were observed as the values were 256% and 665% for
NM-SCM, 270% and 350% for MM-SCM, and 349% and 379% for
HT-SCM. The WAC of the NM-SCM increased by 2.6-fold as the
temperature increased from 30 to 97 C. However, the WAC of
the other two samples did not differ signicantly with the increase
in temperature from 30 to 97 C. This may be due to the fact that

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R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

Table 1
The yield and physicochemical characteristics of the seed coat matter from native, malted, and hydrothermally treated millet (g/100 g).
Parameters
Yield (g/100 g)
Colour
L
a
b
DE
Bulk density (g/mL)
Water absorption capacity
30 C
97 C
Water solubility index
30 C
97 C
Viscosity 10% slurry (cP)
Cold paste
Cooked paste
Moisture
Ether extractives
Protein
Carbohydrates
Dietary bre
Soluble
Insoluble
Total
Ash
Calcium (mg/100 g)
Polyphenols
Iron (mg/100 g)
Zinc (mg/100 g)
Phosphorus (mg/100 g)
Total phytate

NM-SCM

MM-SCM

HT-SCM

25.0 3.00

26.0 3.00

13.0 1.00

51.2 0.50
5.8 0.05
11.1 0.10
41.4 0.30
0.5 0.02

46.1 0.40
5.0 0.04
9.7 0.09
45.9 0.50
0.6 0.01

34.0 0.30
5.3 0.06
7.6 0.07
57.5 0.60
0.6 0.03

256.0 3.00
665.0 5.00

270.0 2.00
350.0 3.00

349.0 3.00
379.0 2.00

5.4 0.30
3.6 0.10

9.8 0.40
20.6 0.50

3.8 0.20
5.5 0.30

14.0 0.80
248.0 2.00
11.0 0.20
3.4 0.10
12.2 0.30
18.3 0.90

12.0 0.90
48.0 1.20
11.0 0.30
2.6 0.10
13.4 0.50
16.5 0.70

21.0 1.00
106.0 2.00
11.0 0.20
3.7 0.10
9.5 0.20
18.8 0.80

1.2 0.07
38.4 0.90
39.6 1.20
5.1 0.07
711.0 8.00
4.8 0.30
6.5 0.20
2.7 0.10
369.0 5.00
1.3 0.10

1.4 0.05
42.5 1.00
43.9 1.50
4.3 0.08
707.0 5.00
3.3 0.20
5.5 0.10
2.7 0.10
253.0 3.00
0.9 0.08

1.1 0.08
47.7 0.90
48.8 1.30
4.8 0.07
864.0 9.00
4.7 0.40
7.5 0.20
2.2 0.20
344.0 5.00
1.2 0.10

Values are mean standard deviation of three independent determinations (dry weight basis).
NM-SCM, native millet seed coat matter; MM-SCM, malted millet seed coat matter; HT-SCM, hydrothermally treated seed coat matter.

the NM-SCM contained raw carbohydrates while that in MM-SCM

and HT-SCM have undergone germination and hydrothermal treatment respectively. It was reported that, the water absorption
capacity of the germinated nger millet was lower than that of
the native millet at 97 C (Malleshi, Desikachar, & Tharanathan,
1986a). It was also reported that, the water absorption capacity
of the nger millet increases on hydrothermal treatment at ambient temperature but the difference is not signicant at 97 C
(Ushakumari, 2009).
The water solubility of all the three samples did not follow any
typical trend. The solubility of NM-SCM at 30 C was 5.4% while
that at 97 C was 3.6%. The decrease in the solubility of the NMSCM at higher temperature is unusual. Generally, the water solubility will be higher at elevated temperature compared to that at
ambient temperature. The decrease in the solubility of seed coat
matter at higher temperature is typical to the native millet. On
the other hand, the solubility increased with an increase in the
temperature in case of HT-SCM and MM-SCM with initial values
of 3.8% and 5.5%, which increased to 9.8% and 20.6% respectively
upon heating. MM-SCM exhibited comparatively higher values
which may be due to the increase in free sugar content during germination (Malleshi, Desikachar, & Tharanathan, 1986b).
The viscosity of the NM-SCM was negligible (14 cP) at 30 C,
which increased to 248 cP on cooking which clearly shows that it
contained unprocessed carbohydrates. Likewise, the cold paste viscosity of the MM-SCM was also negligible (12 cP) and increased to
48 cP on cooking. The cold paste viscosity of HT-SCM was 21 cP,
which increased to 106 cP upon cooking. Hydrolysis of the starchy
material may lead to lower levels of paste viscosity in the case of
MM-SCM (Malleshi, Desikachar, & Tharanathan, 1986a) on the

other hand, a slightly higher viscosity of HT-SCM on heating could

be due to the presence of dextrinised starch caused due to hydrothermal treatment (Ushakumari, 2009).
The nutrient composition of the SCM from all the three differently processed millet indicates that the major nutrients of all
the samples were comparable. However, the MM-SCM exhibited
slightly lesser ether extractives (2.6 g/100 g) and higher protein
(13.4 g/100 g) content compared to NM-SCM and HT-SCM. Slight
variations in the nutrient contents among the seed coat material
could be due to variation in the yield and the presence of endosperm material in NM and MM-SCM. This also reected in their
total dietary bre contents, as it was highest (48.8 g/100 g) for
HT- SCM and the lowest being for the NM-SCM (39.6 g/100 g),
but the soluble bre content of MM-SCM (1.4 g/100 g) was slightly
higher compared to the other two. On the other hand, the total ash
and the polyphenol contents of the MM-SCM were also lower (4.3
and 3.3 g/100 g) than the other two samples. The HT-SCM contained highest level of calcium (864 mg/100 g) than the MM-SCM
(707 mg/100 g) and NM-SCM (711 mg/100 g). The total iron content of HT-SCM was highest (7.5 mg/100 g) followed by that of
NM-SCM (6.5 mg/100 g) and MM-SCM (5.5 mg/100 g). However,
the total zinc content was almost same in NM and MM-SCM
(2.7 mg/100 g) and slightly lower in HT-SCM (2.2 mg/100 g). The
total phosphorous and phytate contents were lowest for MMSCM (253 mg/100 g and 0.9 g/100 g) followed by HT (344 mg/
100 g and 1.22 g/100 g) and NM (369 mg/100 g and 1.31 g/100 g)
SCM. The differences in the proximate composition of the SCM
from three different samples may also be due to the different types
of processing the millet has undergone such as germination and
hydrothermal treatment.

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R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

3.2. Dough characteristics of the composite ours

3.2.2. Farinographic characteristics

The farinographic characteristics of the composite ours are
presented in Fig. 2. The stability and dough development time of
C-1 and C-2 were lower compared to that of the control but higher
than that of the other composite ours. Similar to pasting parameters, both stability and dough development time decreased with
the increase in the percentage of seed coat within a particular sample. Interestingly, C-4 exhibited very poor dough stability among

Farinograph quality number (FU)

Mixing tolerance index (MTI)
Water absorption (%)

160

FQN & TI (FU)

140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Control C-1

Stability & Dough development time

3.2.1. Pasting prole

The pasting proles of the composite ours are presented in the
Fig. 1. The peak viscosity of the composite ours followed a
descending sequence of control > C-1 > C-5 > C-2 > C-6 > C-3 > C-4.
It was observed that the peak viscosity decreased with the increase
in the seed coat content within a particular sample and lowest
peak viscosity was for the composite our from malted SCM. The
nal and setback viscosity of the C-1 was higher (502 and
258 BU) than the control (493 and 238 BU) and that of C-2 (494
and 263 BU) was almost comparable to the control. However, all
other composite ours exhibited lower values for nal and setback
viscosities than the control and the lowest being for C-4 (167 and
80 BU respectively). The trough viscosity for C-1 and C-2 were
higher than the control while that of all other composite ours
were lower than the control and lowest value was for C-4. The
breakdown viscosity of all the composite ours was less than that
of the control and the lowest breakdown was exhibited by the C-4
(85 BU). The gelatinization temperature of all the blends was higher compared to the control following an ascending sequence of
control < C-1 < C-5 < C-3 < C-6 < C-2 < C-4. The lowest values for
all the pasting parameters and highest value for gelatinization
temperature exhibited by C-4 may be due to the presence of hydrolysed carbohydrates as a result of germination (Malleshi, Desikachar, & Tharanathan, 1986a) in MM-SCM and also due to the
presence of comparatively higher seed coat content. It was reported that the presence of seed coat matter results in the increase
of gelatinization temperature in case of nger millet (Ushakumari,
2009). These results substantiate our earlier observations on the
cold and cooked paste viscosities.

180

C-2

C-3

C-4

C-5

C-6

7
Stability (min)

Dough development time (min)

6
5
4
3
2
1
0
Control C-1

C-2
C-3
Samples

C-4

C-5

C-6

Fig. 2. Farinograph characteristics of composite ours from native, malted and

hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter.

all the samples almost 90% less than that of the control and also
the stability of C-3 and C-4 were lower than their respective dough
development time unlike all other composite ours. Even though,

Fig. 1. Pasting proles of the composite ours from native, malted and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter. C-1, composite our of wheat and native millet seed
coat matter at 10% level; C-2, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 20% level; C-3, composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at
10% level; C-4, composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 20% level; C-5, composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at
10% level; C-6, composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 20% level.

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R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

Table 2
Physical characteristics of biscuits prepared from native, malted and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter.
Samples

DE

Diameter (mm)

Thickness (mm)

Density (g/cc)

Breaking strength (g)

Control
C-1
C-2
C-3
C-4
C-5
C-6
SEM ()*

66.0a
54.0b
48.0c
48.0c
42.1d
49.2c
42.4d
0.8

5.2a
4.1b
4.1b
4.0b
4.2b
3.4c
3.2c
0.08

24.4a
16.2b
13.0c
13.4c
12.2c
13.3c
8.0d
0.3

35.01d
40.2c
45.0b
45.0b
50.1a
44.0b
49.0a
0.8

58.0a
57.5b
57.7ab
57.5b
57.5b
58.0a
57.2c
0.04

6.3c
6.8a
6.5b
6.5b
6.5b
6.3c
6.5b
0.06

0.471b
0.443c
0.445c
0.475b
0.443c
0.503a
0.506a
0.012

1560b
1480c
1490c
1540b
1380d
1690a
1720a
15.1

C-1, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 10% level; C-2, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 20% level; C-3, composite
our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 10% level; C-4, composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 20% level; C-5, composite our of wheat
and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 10% level; C-6, composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 20% level.
Mean values of the different superscripts for a particular column vary signicantly (p < 0.05).
*
Degrees of freedom 35.

Table 3
Sensory qualities of biscuits prepared from native, malted and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter.
Parameters
Colour (10)
Surface characteristics (10)
Crumb colour (10)
Texture (25)
Eating quality (25)
Total score (80)

Control
a

9.0
9.0a
9.0a
23.0a
23.0a
73.0a

C-1

C-2
b

8.0
7.5c
7.5c
19.0c
19.0b
61.0c

C-3
b

8.0
7.5c
7.0d
17.0d
17.0c
56.5d

C-4
b

8.0
8.5ab
8.5ab
22.0ab
20.0b
67.0b

C-5
c

7.0
8.0bc
8.0b
20.0c
19.0b
62.0c

SEM ()*

C-6
b

8.0
7.0d
7.0d
17.0d
17.0c
56.0d

7.0
6.0e
6.0e
15.0e
15.0d
49.0e

0.12
0.08
0.09
0.24
0.26
0.39

C-1, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 10% level.
C-2, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 20% level.
C-3, composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 10% level.
C-4, composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 20% level.
C-5, composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 10% level.
C-6, composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 20% level.
Mean values of the different superscripts for a particular row vary signicantly (p < 0.05).
Values in the parenthesis indicate the maximum scores for the individual parameters.
*
Degrees of freedom 63.

the biscuits from C-4 exhibited desirable sensory characteristics,

the stability of its dough was poor mainly because of the presence
of amylases as it has been well established in case of nger millet
that it develops good amylase activity on germination (Malleshi,
Desikachar, & Tharanathan, 1986a). Same trend has been reected
in the farinograph quality number, which was lowest for C-3 and
C-4 and that of the other ours were almost comparable but lower
than that of the control. The poor dough stability of C-3 and C-4
was reected in signicantly higher mixing tolerance index
(MTI). The MTI increased with the increase in the percentage of
the seed coat within the sample. This may be due to the reduction
in the elastic nature of the dough due to the presence of the seed
coat matter. However, no signicant variations were observed in
water absorption of the dough among the samples and the values
were almost comparable to the control.

nicantly for the biscuits from C-5 and C-6. However, the
yellowness values for all other biscuits were nearly comparable except for that from C-6, which exhibited lowest value. On an average, the biscuits from the composite ours were slightly grey
coloured compared to the control gluco-biscuits.
There was not much variation in the diameter of the biscuits but
the thickness varied slightly. The biscuits from the C-1 showed
highest thickness values (6.8 mm) among all other samples. However, the densities of C-1 and C-4 were lowest indicating their uffy nature. The breaking strength of the biscuits from C-1 and C-2
(1485 g), and C-3 and C-4 (1460 g) was lower than the control gluco-biscuits (1560 g) while the biscuits from C-5 and C-6 (1705 g)
were harder than the control as well as that of from other blends.

3.3. Physical properties of the biscuits

Table 3 indicates the sensory prole of the biscuits prepared

from all the composite ours. It was observed that the sensory
scores of the biscuits in terms of colour were comparable for the
composite ours containing 10% and 20% SCM level. However, in
terms of surface characteristics, texture and eating quality, the biscuits based on MM-SCM scored higher than the other two samples.
The sensory rating for the biscuits from MM-SCM based composite
our was high in terms of colour, surface characteristics, crumb
colour, texture and eating quality than those made from NMSCM and HT-SCM.
The sensory parameters of the biscuits from the composite our
of NM-SCM at 20% level were signicantly lower than that of 10%
level. Similar observations were also made for the biscuits from the
composite our of HT-SCM. However, the differences between the

The physical properties of the biscuits are presented in Table 2.

The L, a, b and DE values for the colour indicated that the biscuits from composite ours were slightly darker than the control.
The increase in dark colour may be due to the incorporation of seed
coat material, which normally turns to dark colour on heat treatment. The increase in DE values from 35 to 50 indicated a proportionate increase in the darkness as the percentage of the seed coat
fraction increased in the composite ours. However, the biscuits
prepared from C-4 and C-6 were darkest as revealed by the lower
values for the L, a, b parameters and higher values for DE. There
was no signicant difference in the L values for the biscuits prepared from C-2, C-3 and C-5. The redness values also decreased sig-

3.4. Sensory characteristics

R. Krishnan et al. / Food Chemistry 129 (2011) 499506

Table 4
Proximate composition of biscuits (g/100 g).
Nutrient

Control
biscuits

C-1

C-4

C-5

Moisture
Fat
Protein
Carbohydrates

3.8 0.06
12.1 0.10
8.8 0.10
71.7 1.00

4.2 0.07
12.5 0.10
8.9 0.30
66.8 1.00

3.5 0.05
13.0 0.20
9.5 0.20
63.6 0.90

3.5 0.06
12.8 0.10
9.5 0.30
66.3 0.80

0.9 0.05
1.2 0.06
2.1 0.06
1.1 0.09
48 1.00

3.2 0.20
2.5 0.30
5.7 0.30
1.3 0.10
112 3.50

6.9 0.30
1.4 0.09
8.3 0.30
1.2 0.10
148 2.30

4.4 0.20
1.6 0.05
6.0 0.20
1.5 0.08
180 2.50

1.56 0.20
0.34 0.04
0.40 0.02

1.78 0.10
0.46 0.03
0.56 0.03

1.88 0.20
0.58 0.04
0.93 0.07

1.83 0.10
0.43 0.02
0.57 0.05

Dietary bre
Insoluble
Soluble
Total
Ash
Calcium (mg/
100 g)
Iron (mg/100 g)
Zinc (mg/100 g)
Polyphenols

Values are mean standard deviation of three independent determinations (dry

weight basis).
C-1, composite our of wheat and native millet seed coat matter at 10% level; C-4,
composite our of wheat and malted millet seed coat matter at 20% level; C-5,
composite our of wheat and hydrothermally treated millet seed coat matter at 10%
level.

overall eating qualities of the biscuits from composite our of MMSCM at 10% and 20% level were not signicant. The sensory parameters for the biscuits from all the three composite ours were poor
at 30% level of substitution. The sensory scores for colour, surface
characteristics, crumb colour, texture and eating quality of the
NM-SCM at 30% level were 6.0, 5.5, 5.0, 10.0 and 10.0 respectively,
while for that of MM-SCM were 4.5, 6.0, 6.0, 14.0 and 13.0 respectively. The biscuits from HT-SCM at 30% level exhibited lowest sensory scores for colour (4.5), surface characteristics (4.0), crumb
colour (4.0), texture (10.0) and eating quality (10.0). The results
indicate that, substituting NM-SCM and HT-SCM at 10% level and
MM-SCM at 20% level was highly desirable in terms of their sensory qualities. Hence, biscuits from these composite ours only
were evaluated for their nutrient composition.
3.5. Nutrient composition of the biscuits
The nutrient composition of the biscuits presented in the Table
4 indicates that, the moisture content of the biscuits was in the
range of 3.54%, and the total carbohydrate contents of the experimental products was lower than the control but the protein as
well as the dietary bre content was higher. The biscuits from
malted millet contained nearly fourfold dietary bre compared to
the control. As expected, the calcium content of the experimental
biscuits was also signicantly higher (112180 mg/100 g) than
that of the control (48 mg/100 g) biscuits. Similarly, about 20% increase in the iron content and about 35% increase in the zinc content was observed compared to that the control. The biscuits from
MM-SCM showed an increase of 70% in its total zinc content compared to the control. Thus, the biscuits prepared from the composite our were nutritionally superior in terms of protein, dietary
bre, calcium, iron and zinc contents. Besides, they may offer the
nutraceutical benets of the nger millet seed coat matter due to
higher levels of polyphenol contents.
4. Conclusions
This study showed that wheat our could be substituted by nger millet seed coat matter up to 20% level for the preparation of
gluco-type biscuits. The biscuits from the composite ours contained higher levels of protein, dietary bre, calcium, iron and zinc
and may offer the inherent health benets of nger millet namely

505

the antioxidants to the consumer. Among the different SCM, the

seed coat from the malted millet is more suitable than native
and hydrothermally processed millet for preparing biscuits.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge with thanks the support received
from Dr. V. Prakash, Director, CFTRI, Mysore. The authors thank
the All India Co-ordinated Small Millets Improvement Project (AICSMIP) of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR), New
Delhi, for nancially supporting this work.
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