Relationships between starch pasting properties, free fatty acids and amylose content in barley

Relatively few studies have examined the influence of lipids or fatty acids on starch pasting properties in barley. The aim of this study was to evaluate the use of the Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA) as a tool to examine changes in starch functionality related with free fatty acids (FFAs) and amylose content in barley flour samples. Changes in RVA parameters such as setback (STB) and final viscosity (FV) were related to differences in both FFA (oleic and palmitic acids) and amylose contents due to the diverse barley genotypes analysed. The magnitude of the RVA profile values derived from samples having high a concentration of palmitic acid (3900. mg/g) was lower compared with that having the lower concentration of the same FFA (2470. mg/g), displaying low FV (5666 vs 4166. cP) and low STB (1625 vs 1174. cP) values. Similar trends were observed for the other FFA measured. These results showed that pasting properties of barley measured using RVA are determined by a complexity of parameters, where the combination of lipids (FFA) and amylose might determine the characteristics of the material and its final use (e.g. malting).