Meeting Abstract - Poster Presentation

Buckwheat in wheat flour tortillas
M. GRITSENKO (1), N. Alviola (1), L. Rooney (1), R. Waniska (1), C. McDonough (1)
(1) Cereal Quality Laboratory, Department of Soil & Crop Sciences, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX, USA
Cereal Foods World 52:A42

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum) is a pseudo-cereal grown in Eastern Europe and Asia. Its proteins have good distribution of essential amino acids, such as lysine and tryptophan. These proteins have high solubility and nutritional value. Buckwheat contains dietary fiber, vitamins (B1, B2, B3) and minerals (P, Ca, Fe), resistant starch, rutin and D-chiro-inositol. Rutin is an antioxidant in buckwheat with desirable properties for treatment of chronic heart disease and varicose veins. D-chiro-inositol occurs in relatively high levels in buckwheat. It might reduce levels of sugar in the blood and have applications in diets of people with type II diabetes. Whole buckwheat was ground into buckwheat flour that was blended with wheat flour to produce press type flour tortillas containing 5, 10 and 20% buckwheat. Tortillas containing buckwheat flour were darker; the 10% blend had an attractive color with a pleasant aroma, and taste. Rollability of the fresh tortillas decreased slightly from 5 to 4.5 for the tortillas containing 0 and 20% buckwheat flour respectively. Distance to rupture and force to rupture were 14, 8 and 7.5 for the control and 17.1 and 7.5 for the tortillas containing 20% buckwheat flour. In 4 days force to rupture did not significantly change. Rupture distance decreased to 12.6 mm for the control and to 12.2 for the tortillas containing 20% buckwheat flour. After 4 days, the rollability decreased slightly to 3.5, 3.5, 2.4 and 3.0 for the control, 5, 10 and 20% buckwheat tortillas, respectively. The modifications in composition and in vitro starch hydrolysis and estimated glycemic index will be measured.