Sugars Content of Pearl Millet as Diversed among Cultivars and Affected by Germination

Abstract

Pearl millet is an important cereal grain for people living in the semi arid tropics of India and Africa. 1) The grain can be processed into many products one of which is malt. Malting of pearl millet lowers the tannin content, thereby improving enzyme activity. 2) It also improves in vitro starch digestibility 3 5) due to the activation of amylases that occurs during germination. 6) As a result of amylase activities, there is increase in the concentration of total soluble sugars, both reducing and non reducing sugars (major products of amylase activities) in malted pearl millet grains. 2,7) Generally, a lot of enzymes are either synthesized or are set free during germination. As a result, malted grains are very important and could be used as brewer malt, distillers malt, malt sugars and malt flour which are used in preparation of beer, breakfast cereals, bakery products, pharmaceuticals, infant foods, weaning foods and as enzyme rich flours. 8) The various sugars that are obtained in malted pearl millet grain may be one of the factors imparting taste and flavor to the food products and may play a significant role in determining the end use. Hence, there is the need to evaluate the quantity of these sugars and determine the optimum germination time and cultivars that could give the maximum yield. The most frequently studied sugars of cereal grains are glucose, fructose, sucrose, maltose and lactose. 9) This information could serve as a guide in screening the pearl millet cultivars to obtain those that are most suitable for producing glucose, fructose, sucrose and maltose.Sugars of unmalted sorghum and pearl millet have been reported by other scientists around the world 10,11) but such information is scanty in this environment, especially on the effect of germination time on the quantity of these sugars. Therefore, the objective of this study was to determine the effect of germination time and cultivar on the concentration of various sugars of pearl millet, and obtain cultivars that are suitable for producing glucose, fructose, sucrose and maltose. MATERIALS AND METHODSTen pearl millet cultivars. SOSAT C 88, ZANGO, EX BORNO, LCRI IC 9701, ICMV IS 94206, ICMV IS 94208, GWAGWA, G.I. 14.9, GB 8735, G.I 297 1 and a sorghum cultivar (control) were obtained from Lake Chad Research Institute, Maiduguri. Sorghum was used as control because it has been malted for centuries and the malt is used for the production of baby food and traditional alcoholic and nonalcoholic beverages. 12) Chemicals and reagents were obtained from recognized distributors and were of analytical grade.Sample preparation and steeping. The cereal grains were cleaned manually of broken seeds, dust and other extraneous materials. Experimental samples were taken using the quartering procedures of Lees. 13) The cleaned grains were steeped in thrice quantity of water for 12 h with 1 h air rest after 6 h of steeping. For each air rest, the steep water was changed. After steeping, the grains were sterilized by soaking in a solution of 1% sodium hypochlorite ...