Gluten Free Tortillas of Finger Millet (Eleusine coracana) fortified with Chickpea (Cicer arietinum).
Millets are a good source of phytochemicals, micronutrients, and essential amino acids except for lysine and threonine. There have been studies that have shown potential health benefits in many conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, aging, cancer, and celiac disease There are six types of most common and important millets, amongst them finger millet has the highest amount of calcium, potassium, sodium, dietary fiber, and iron.
Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) is a Leguminosae family legume that originated in Asia, it contains high amount of protein (23-27%) and lipids (5.8-6.2%) compared to other legumes. The combination on finger millet flour and chickpea would be a perfect match to fulfill the requirement of all the basic macro and micronutrients. The struggle in the formulation of the tortilla is the absence of gluten in these flour. However, the specific amino acids content of chickpea has characteristic of high foam expansion and stability in comparison to other legumes which is beneficial in gluten-free product development.
There was no significant difference in nutritional facts of the tortillas since the only difference in the formulation was the use of different starch which had similar properties. The composition
of starches is very similar consisting of polymers and minor compound however the physio-chemical properties and functional characteristics
T-Rice tortillas were firmer but had an insignificant difference in distance meaning they had similar extensibility. According to Frenholz, a higher force indicates greater stretchability, the higher force on T-Rice suggests that it has the higher stretchability in comparison to T-Potato tortillas with potato starch.
Adv Food Technol Nutr Sci Open J. 2019; 5(1): 19-25. doi: 10.17140/AFTNSOJ-5-153
