Rapid off-flavor development and bitterness is a major concern during storage of grains and cereal flours, especially millet flour due to the occurrence of rancidity. The pre-treatment of grains before milling ensures the better retention of quality of the grains and flour, thus enhancing their utility in various products. The flour obtained from untreated, soak-boil and soak-steam treated foxtail millet grains was stored at ambient and under refrigerated conditions for 90 days. The % FFA content of untreated, soak-boil and soak-steam was 0.49, 0.22 and 0.21 %, respectively which increased significantly to 0.68, 0.28 and 0.26 % oleic acid after 90 days at storage at ambient conditions. The last phase of storage depicted a significant increase in the peroxide value and FFA of untreated samples. Under refrigerated conditions the flour obtained from soak-steamed grain had a better storage stability, functional characteristics than soak-boiled grains, and those stored at ambient temperature. The moisture, carbohydrates, FFA, peroxide levels increased, whereas antioxidant activity, pasting properties, decreased significantly during 90 days of storage. The current investigation reveals that the hydrothermal treatments by soak-boil and soak-steam methods could be effectively used to prolong the storage period of millet grain and milling fractions for better utilization.
Arabinoxylan (AX) is a significant component of dietary fiber (DF) present in both whole meal and refined flour of wheat. Identifying genetic loci associated with AX content and developing molecular markers can facilitate the breeding of wheat cultivars with increased AX levels through marker-assisted selection (MAS). In our study, we analyzed the AX profiles of 262 recombinant inbred lines (RIL) derived from Zhongmai 578/Jimai 22, along with a natural population consisting of 161 representative wheat varieties in China. Our investigation revealed that Taishan 1 and Shan 715 exhibit WE-AX content comparable to or even superior to Yumai 34, a current benchmark cultivar for high WE-AX content. Additionally, we discovered a novel quantitative trait locus (QTL) in the RIL population, explaining 6.9–19.6% of the phenotypic variance of water-extractable AX (WE-AX) and 7.3–10.2% of the phenotypic variance of total AX (TOT-AX). Notably, a high-throughput competitive allele-specific PCR (KASP) marker was developed and validated in the natural population, expanding our understanding of germplasm with high AX content and providing molecular markers that can be utilized in marker-assisted selection for high AX wheat.