In vitro Starch Digestibility and Nutritional Composition of Improved Rice Varieties from Cameroun

Aims: Resistant starch (RS), kinetics of starch digestion, predicted glycemic index (pGI) and nutritional composition were determined in two improved rice varieties from Cameroun.
Place and Duration of Study: Department of Bioresource Engineering, McGill University, Canada between December 2012 and March 2013.
Methodology: Non-parboiled and parboiled samples of TOX 3145 and NERICA-3 varieties were involved in this study. An in vitro enzymatic starch digestion method was applied to measure starch digestibility parameters. Standardized methods were adopted for proximate and mineral contents evaluation.
Results: The parboiled samples had significantly higher (P<0.05) resistant starch (8.35 - 11.07%) than the non-parboiled samples (3.81 - 4.84%). The values for pGI among samples ranged from 57.57 to 67.78%. Significantly higher values for protein, phosphorus and potassium were found among the parboiled samples (P<0.05). Nutritional composition was positively related to RS while pGI had inverse relationship with protein, ash, fat, phosphorus, potassium and RS.
Conclusion: Starch digestibility of these rice varieties was associated to their nutritional composition.