Barley: A Cereal with Potential for Development of Functional Fermented Foods Suman Deepti, Sreeja V.* Department of Dairy Microbiology, S.M.C. College of Dairy Science, Anand Agricultural University, Anand-388110, Gujarat, India *Corresponding author: sreeja_p70@rediffmail.com
Online published on 12 September, 2019. Abstract Cereals like barley are now increasingly being explored for their application as ingredients for improving the functional properties in diverse foods. Cereal-based/cereal containing probiotic functional foods are becoming increasingly popular owing to their potential health benefits. Barley is considered as a rich source of dietary fiber, phytochemicals, vitamins and minerals. The presence of β-glucan in whole grain barley has been largely credited for its health benefits. The phytochemicals in barley exhibit strong antioxidant, antiproliferative, and cholesterol lowering abilities, which are potentially useful in lowering the risk of certain diseases. Barley, due to its nutritional contents are considered good substrate for the growth of lactic acid bacteria (LAB)/probiotic bacteria. Several studies have demonstrated the fermentation of barley by LAB. Hence barley can be a good substrate to produce functional fermented foods using lactic acid bacteria. The content of dietary fibre in barley can serve as prebiotics for the probiotic bacteria and thus can add to the functional value of fermented foods. In addition to this barley proteins are said to be good candidates for value-added application as food supplements owing to their functional properties. Top Keywords Barley, β-glucan, Phytochemicals, Probiotics, Functional, Fermented food. Top |