Techno-functional, nutritional, antioxidant and prebiotic potential of underutilized buck wheat flour from Western Himalayas of Jammu and Kashmir

This study presents a comparative analysis of the flours of common buckwheat, tartary buckwheat with common wheat flour in terms of nutritional composition, functional properties, potential health benefits and prebiotic potential. The water absorption capacity of the common wheat was recorded higher (162.3 %) among tartary buck wheat (138 %) and common buck wheat (133 %). While as, oil absorption capacity of common buck wheat was higher (179 %) followed by tartary buck wheat (177 %) and common wheat (153 %). Phenolic content in wheat flour was found to be 297.33 mg GAE/100 g, which was significantly lower (p ≤ 0.05) than tartary buck wheat (1161.33 mg GAE/100 g) and common buck wheat BW1 (1033.33 mg GAE/100 g). The probiotic potential revealed that better growth and proliferation was recorded in case of Lactobacillus rhamnosus ATCC 53,103 on tartary buck wheat as carbon source. The results showed significant difference (p ≤ 0.05) in the nutritional composition and functional properties of the flour from two buckwheat varieties, as compared to whole wheat flour.