Physicochemical and functional properties of breadfruit flour, commercial wheat flour and starches

Artocarpus altilis or breadfruit is a tropical fruits as well as traditional starch rich crop and originated from Malaysia. However, this fruit is underutilized due to inadequate information regarding its physicochemical (physical and chemical) characteristics and potential use in industries. Thus, a study was carried out to produce, determine and compare the physicochemical and functional properties of breadfruit flour with commercial wheat flour and starches (corn, potato and tapioca). Breadfruit flour showed highest in ash (2.53%) and lowest in moisture content (10.94%) amongst five samples. Breadfruit has significantly higher in water and oil holding capacity than wheat flour and starches, 1.53 g/g and 1.16 g/g respectively. The swelling power was found to increase with increasing temperature for all samples. Potato starch exhibited the highest swelling power (15.02 and 27.82 g/g) at 60 and 70 degrees C. Whereas breadfruit flour showed slight tendency to swell (5.44 g/g) at 70 degrees C. The pasting temperature was highest (82.75 degrees C) while breakdown viscosity was lowest (33.50 cP) for breadfruit flour. Setback values for breadfruit flour and tapioca starch were lower than other samples, 1317.50 and 1221 cP respectively, which made those samples tend to expose to high retrogradation process. Those properties for breadfruit flour has made it could be incorporated in various food products owing to the differences in their physicochemical and functional properties compared to other commercial wheat flour and starches.