Physicochemical, morphological, thermal and pasting characteristics of starches from moth bean (Vigna aconitifolia) cultivars grown in India: an underutilized crop.

This is a first kind of study on genotype diversity of starches of Moth Bean an underutilized pulse of India. Physicochemical properties like amylose content (7.8-21.4%), swelling power (11-13.5 g/g), solubility (5.9-9.0%) of starches were observed to differ significantly among the six moth bean starches. Swelling power of all the moth bean starches was observed to increase in the temperature range of 55-95 °C. Scanning electron microscopy indicated polyhedral, irregular shape of granule. X-ray diffraction studies indicated a 'C' type crystalline structure and the starches differed significantly in relative crystallinity (17-34%) which affected significantly retro gradation tendencies of the starches. Peak viscosity of starches varied significantly and ranged between 4580 and 5087 cP. Resistant starch content of starches also varied significantly among the cultivars and ranged between 57.3 and 75.6%.