Studies on changes in quality characteristics of Indian horse chestnut (Aesculus indica Colebr.) flour during storage.

Indian horse chestnut (Aesculus indica Colebr.) is a rich source of starch but contains toxic compound known as saponins which makes it bitter and unsuitable for edible purposes. To exploit the starch source for edible purpose first of all the saponins were removed to a acceptable limit by pretreating the crushed mass of Indian horse chestnut as suggested earlier. Edible mass of Indian horse chestnut was dried and milled into flour and packed in different packaging materials and further stored under refrigerated (4-7°C) and ambient (18-25°C) storage conditions for 6 months. The flour packed in aluminium laminated pouches and stored under refrigerated condition showed minimum increase in physico-chemical and rheological characteristics like moisture content (6.49%), water activity (0.155), reducing sugars (1.72%) and retained highest amounts of total solids (93.50%), total sugars (3.75%), starch (63.89%), ash (2.36%), proteins (102.23 mg/100g) along with oil absorption capacity (1.54 ml/g), water absorption capacity (4.44 ml/g) and bulk density (0.635 g/ml). The sensory characteristics scores like colour (7.60), taste (7.25), aroma (6.88), texture (6.87) and overall acceptability (7.08) were retained highest in this packaging material as compared to others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]