Vegetos

Abstract

Sorghum, barley and horse-gram are excellent source of bioactives (phenolics, miner-als, β-glucan) with documented health effects. Effect of four different extrusion variables, viz. high temperature, high moisture (HTHM, 120°C, 20%); high temperature, low moisture (HTLM, 120°C, 14%); low temperature, high moisture (LTHM, 100°C, 20%); and low temperature and low moisture (LTLM, 100°C, 14%) on three com-posite blends from sorghum, barley and horse-gram was examined in the present study. Extru-sion processing significantly (p<0.05) affected the physico-chemical and functional properties viz. expansion ratio (ER), bulk density (BD), hy-dration properties, total phenolics, antioxidant activity, and texture of extrudates. Free phenolics and antioxidant activity in extrudates processed at HTLM increased appreciably by 25–40% and 16–52% respectively in comparison to un-extruded blends. Thus, tailoring extrusion conditions can help increase total phenolics and antioxidant ac-tivity of snacks. Extrudates developed from sor-ghum-barley-horsegram (45: 45: 10) produced acceptable snacks with high antioxidant activity and sensory quality.