Short Communication Flour Properties of Whole and Dehulled Mung Beans (Vigna radiata) and Development of Food Gels Incorporated with Kithul (Caryota urenus) Flour

In the present study, proximate and flour properties including thermogravimetric (TGA/DSC) and X-ray defraction (XRD) analysis of whole and dehulled mung bean (Vigna radiata) flours were studied. Moreover, food gels were developed from whole and dehulled mung bean flours with incorporating Kithul palm (Caryota urenus) flour without adding sugar and artificial food additives. According to the proximate analysis, whole Mung bean flour contains (%, dry weight basis); carbohydrates 62.67±0.23, and proteins 29.39±1.52 while hulled mung bean contains (%); carbohydrate 66.27±0.75, and proteins 28.0±4.61 proteins. The TGA/DSC and XRD resulted similar pattern for both whole and hulled mung bean flours. The food gels developed from hulled mung bean flour resulted higher syneresis (18%) than gels from whole mung beans (7%). However, food gels from hulled mung bean flour with incorporated Kithul flour were ranked the highest organoleptic acceptance according to the sensory evaluation. Collectively, the results of the current study suggested that local mung bean flour could be a potential ingredient to develop food gels with incorporating Kithul flour as novel functional foods. The compositional analysis of developed mung bean food gels is in progress. Keywords: food gels, mung bean flour, value-addition, Vigna radiata