In vitro digestibility, crystallinity, rheological, thermal, particle size and morphological characteristics of pinole, a traditional energy food obtained from toasted ground maize

Flour obtained from toasted ground maize grains is widely consumed by different ethnic groups of Northern Mexico and Southwest USA as an energy source. In this work the in vitro digestibility, crystallinity, rheological, thermal, particle size distribution and morphological characteristics of toasted ground white and blue maize flours were studied. X-ray diffraction studies showed that the crystallinity content was reduced, but that the hydrolysis rate and the in vitro digestibility of starch were greatly improved by the toasting process. The relative amount of rapidly digestible starch showed an important increase at the expense of resistant starch content reduction. The thermal properties of white maize starch increased slightly, but those of the blue maize starch decreased slightly after toasting. Aqueous dispersions formed with 10% (w/w) flour were heated at 90 °C for 5 min to induce starch gelling, in order to resemble thin porridges. The dispersed gels exhibited higher elastic modulus (G′) than loss modulus (G′′) in the linear viscoelastic region, with blue maize dispersions displaying higher moduli magnitudes. At higher shear strain amplitudes, G′ decreased but G′′ first increased and then decreased (overshoot phenomenon). The effects of toasting on the structure and functionality of maize starch are explained on the basis of limited gelatinization of the granules. The results in this work provide insights for understanding the extensive use of pinole by impoverished ethnic groups, and more recently by high performance ultra-runners and athletes, as an energy food.