Effect of soaking and germination on physicochemical and functional attributes of horsegram flour

Horsegram is an underutilized pulse, traditionally used for treating various disorders like kidney stones, diabetes and joint pain. The present study was undertaken to optimize the soaking and germination conditions, to decrease the anti-nutritional factors and at the same time maintaining the nutritional properties of horsegram. Horsegram seeds were soaked for 6, 12 and 18 h followed by germination for 0, 24 and 48 h under different illumination conditions i.e., light and dark respectively. The soaked and germinated samples were dried in laboratory drier at 55 °C until constant moisture was achieved and was further analyzed for various quality attributes. Almost all the physicochemical and functional characteristics were significantly affected by both soaking and germination, whereas, germination done in light and dark conditions, exerted significant effect on the ascorbic acid content, total protein, total phenols, antioxidant activity and tannin content only. Based on the quality attributes, it was found that treatment having 18 h soaking and 48 h germination in the presence of light was the best where maximum decrease in the anti-nutritional factors was observed. Moreover, there was an increase in ascorbic acid, total protein content and a decrease in the anti-nutritional factors such as oxalate and tannin content. Thus, it is concluded that 18 h soaking and 48 h germination in the presence of light can be considered as the optimum conditions to increase the nutritional content of horsegram flour, which can further be utilized for the preparation of different value-added food products.