Cultivar difference in physicochemical properties of starches and flours from temperate rice of Indian Himalayas

• Indian Himalayan rice cultivars were evaluated for starch and flour properties.
• Starch and flour were characterized using different analytical instruments.
• Diversity was found among the physico-chemical properties of rice cultivars.
• Intermediate and high amylose rice cultivars were observed.

Starch and flour of seven temperate rice cultivars grown in Himalayan region were evaluated for composition, granule structure, crystallinity, Raman spectrometry, turbidity, swelling power, solubility, pasting properties and textural properties. The rice cultivars showed medium to high amylose content for starch (24.69–32.76%) and flour (17.78–24.86%). SKAU-382 showed the highest amount of amylose (32.76%). Rice starch showed polyhedral granule shapes and differences in their mean granule size (2.3–6.5 μm) were noted among the samples. The starch and flour samples showed type A-pattern with strong reflection at 15, 18, and 23. Pasting profile and textural analysis of rice starch and flour showed that all the cultivars differences, probably due to variation in amylose content. The present study can be used for identifying differences between rice genotypes for starch and flour quality and could provide guidance to possible industries for their end use.