Okra seed and seedless pod: Comparative study of their phenolics and carbohydrate fractions and their impact on bread-making

• Published in: Food chemistry 2020-07, Vol.317, p.126387-126387, Article 126387
• Main Authors: Xu, Kang, Guo, Mengmeng, Roman, Laura, Pico, Joana, Martinez, Mario M.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Flour; Mechanical fractionation; Phenolic compounds; Starch digestion; Wheat bread
• ISSN: 0308-8146; 1873-7072
• DOI: 10.1016/j.foodchem.2020.126387

•Breads with size-fractionated flours from okra seeds and seedless pods were developed.•Coarse okra flour resulted in more voluminous and softer breads than fine okra flour.•Okra seed flour dramatically increased the amount of phenolics of wheat breads.•The use of okra seed flours remarkably hindered the starch digestion in bread crumb.•Breads made with fine okra seed and seedless flours exhibited a second digestion rate. The outstanding amount of phenolics and pectins of okra seeds and seedless pods, respectively, is well-known. However, their impact on bread nutritional quality, and particularly on slowing down α-amylase activity during crumb digestion, has never been studied. In this work, the phenolic and carbohydrate fractions of developed fine and coarse flours from okra seeds (OS) and seedless pods (OP) were investigated as well as their impact on wheat bread physical and nutritional quality. The use of okra flours dramatically increased the amount of extractable (EPP) and non-extractable hydrolyzable phenolics (HPP) of wheat breads, attaining up to 210.8 and 2944.8 mg/100 g of EPP and HPP, respectively, with only a 5% replacement with OS. Interestingly, breads made with fine OS and OP exhibited a second digestion rate upon 50 min of digestion, indicating a time-dependence hypoglycemic effect of okra constituents whereby OS-breads presented the slowest digestion rate and extension among all breads.