Thermorheological characteristics of chickpea flour slurry as affected by moisture content

• Paste strength depended upon flour to water ratio and isothermal heating condition.
• Decreasing flour concentration shifted onset gel point temperature to higher value.
• Zero-order reaction kinetics described the flour gelatinization process well.
• The gelatinization process activation energies ranged between 19.5 and 22 kJ mol−1.
• The gelatinization enthalpy of chickpea flour slurry varied from 1.1 to 2.5 J g−1.

Dynamic and thermal properties of chickpea flour (CF) slurry and paste were evaluated to understand CF behavior before incorporating it into other foods. Viscoelastic properties of CF slurry were investigated as a function of flour to water ratio (1:5, 1:4, 1:3, and 1:2), using vane geometry. Heat-induced gelatinization of CF was studied by rheometric measurement under both isothermal and non-isothermal heating processes. Isothermally induced paste behaved like a weak gel. CF gelatinization kinetics were evaluated by a non-isothermal technique as a function of G′, and G′ vs. time (t) data from the cross-over of G′ and G  ″ up to the Gmax′ value were considered for rate estimation. Zero-order reaction kinetics described CF gelatinization process well, with activation energies ranging between 19.5 ± 0.4 and 22 ± 0.5 kJ mol−1. Differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) analysis revealed that gelatinization enthalpy of CF slurry was significantly affected by the moisture content.