Protein and total starch contents of milling fractions of buckwheat grown in different locations of Türki̇ye

Buckwheat, which is a pseudocereal, is a gluten-free product. It has high nutritional content and physiological benefits. The physicochemical and functional properties of buckwheat starch, such as swelling, gelatinisation, pasting, retrogradation, are influenced by the milling process. Buckwheat seed consists of hull, bran, endosperm and germ. The aim of this research was to find out the effect of milling process on protein and starch contents of milling fractions of native buckwheat collected from the different locations of Türkiye. The buckwheat cultivar of Güneş cv. was collected from 8 different locations of Türkiye in the harvest year of 2021 and the buckwheat cultivar of Aktaş cv. collected from Konya location was used for checking. After conditioning, they were roller-milled (Bühler) into the fractions of coarse bran, fine bran, break flour and reduction flour. Buckwheat were also rotor-milled using a high-speed ultra-centrifugal mill (Retsch) for gaining wholegrain buckwheat flours. The break flours, reduction flours and wholegrain flours obtained from each location and cultivar were analysed for determining the protein and total starch contents on dry weight basis. The nitrogen contents were determined using Kjeldahl method. Total starch contents were determined spectrophotometrically using Megazyme total starch assay kit. The highest protein (%N×6.25) contents were found in the reduction flours followed by wholegrain flours. The highest total starch contents were achieved with the break flours followed by the reduction flours. The protein and starch contents of break and reduction flours of buckwheat were completely different from the same fractions of roller-milled wheat. buckwheat, milling fractions, wholegrain, protein, total starch.