Physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of extruded flours from fresh and hardened chickpeas (Cicer arietinum L)

The objective of this work was to study the effect of the dehulling/softeni ng/extrusion process on physicochemical and nutritional characteristics of fresh and hardened chickpea flours. Four flours were assessed:fresh chickpe a conventional flour; hardened chickpea conventional flour; fresh chickpea extruded flour; and hardened chickpea extruded flour. Extruded flours showe d higher values of total colour difference (24.0-28.7 vs. 19.0-20.8), water absorption index (2.32-3.27 vs. 2.12-2.15 g gel/g dry sample) and dispersa bility (35.1-63.7 vs. 25.2-26.0% and lower Hunter 'L' value (86.5-87.4 vs. 89.4-90.5), particle size index (61.5-67.4 vs. 72.4-73.8% and water solubil ity, index (20.1-26.1 vs. 27.5-30.8 g solids/g original solids) than conven tional flours. The dehulling/softening/extrusion process improved significa ntly in vitro protein digestibility (9.3-21.7%, apparent digestibility (6.5 -6.6%, true digestibility (5.8-7.5%), protein efficiency untie (27.2-36.9%) and net protein ratio (5.2-14.0%) of chickpea flours. Microstructural diff erences between both conventional and extruded flours were observed. The de hulling/softening/extrusion process could be applied to improve qualify cha racteristics of fresh and hardened chickpeas. (C) 2000 Academic Press.