Physicochemical and Rheological Properties of Taro (Colocasia esculenta) Flour Affected by Cormels Weight and Method of Peeling

The present study investigated the effect of peeling and cormels weight on physicochemical and rheological properties of taro (Colocasia esculenta) flour. The cormels were divided by the weight into four classes: size < 170 g, 170 < size < 214 g, 214 g < size < 284 g, and size > 284 g. Each one of these classes contains half of peeled and unpeeled cormels. The results showed a difference between the flour derived from different taro cormels weight in term of the physicochemical, morphological, and rheological properties. However, no difference was observed in terms of the thermal properties. The study revealed that taro flours are mainly made of dietary fibers. The granule size of the flour varied significantly within each different cormels weight in the same method of peeling and the mean flour diameters are around 204 mu m. For both form of peeling, potassium was found to be the higher mineral and sodium was the lower one. Concerning phytate, the peeled samples have the lowest values of 5.76 and 4.79 mg/g dry matter, respectively, for cormels size < 170 g and 170 g < size < 214 g. Finally, we observed that peeling methods and weight of taro cormels have an influence on some physicochemical composition of flour and rheological properties of flours suspensions.