s and Discussion
3.1. Water and oil absorption capacity
Germination significantly (p< 0.05) increased the water absorption capacity of brown rice flour (Table 1).
Other studies also report that the water absorption capacities of cowpea, green gram, lentil and bengal gram
are improved by germination [9], [10]. An increase of the water absorption of germinated rice flour could be
due to an increase in sugar content and breakdown of polysaccharide molecules; therefore, the sites for
interaction with water and holding water could be increased. The highest increase was found in Yellow-11,
Chainat-1, and KDML-105 cultivar, which contains higher level of amylose content than the RD-6 (waxy
rice). Germination significantly decreased the capacities of oil absorption of rice flour, except in KDML-105.
Rice flour from all cultivars had comparable capacity of oil absorption. The oil absorption capacity depends
on the protein content, which rice flour had only small amount of protein, hence, the oil absorption capacity
was low.
3.2. Bulk density
Germination significantly decreased the bulk density of rice flour (Table 1). Similar results were also
reported by [9] for the germination of green gram, cowpea, lentil, and bengal gram.
3.3. Amylase activity of rice flour
The activity D-amylase during germination of the rice flour, are reports in Table 1. The highest amylase
activity was observed in germinated flour obtained from the Chainat-1 (22.68 U/g) whilst only low activity
was found in ungerminated rice flours (0.12 to 0.34 U/g). Similar results were observed by [2].
3.4. Foaming capacity
Due to a bulky increase in the surface area in the liquid/air interphase, proteins denature and aggregate
during whipping, his property is important for flour used in a variety of bakery products [11]. The control rice
flour did not show any foaming capacity, except in the Chainat-1, but only small amount was observed. The
germination significantly increased the foaming capacity ranging between 0.92 and 1.56 % as indicated in
Table 1. The similar results were reported by [12].
3.5. Least gelation concentration
The least gelation concentration (Table 2) for germinated flour was increased in all cultivars. The least
44 Anuchita Moongngarm et al. / APCBEE Procedia 8 ( 2014 ) 41 – 46
gelation concentration was ranged between 8 to 12 % in nonwaxy rice (Yellow-11, Chainat-1, and KDML-
105) whilst that of germinated flour from waxy rice was 14%. Gelation is an aggregation of denatured
molecules. Germination may break down the rice proteins and, thus caused more denature when heated and
aggregation than in the ungerminated rice flour. These results would be useful in food systems require thin
thickening and gelling agents.