Page 466 - AWSAR 2.0

442 || AWSAR Awarded Popular Science Stories - 2019
used as an ingredient in the bakery? And when it was not the ingredient at the table, where arises the question of discarding it? Alright, let me break it up for you. Bran is the outer layer of grains that is removed during processing such as dehulling, milling and polishing. Therefore, watch keenly when the wheat was polished, and the bran was removed and thrown. Bran is a byproduct or waste generated during the processing of cereals grains and millets. But why are we interested in bran? Does it ring some bell to you? Oh, yes! Something to do with oat bran, rice bran oil and their health benefits that you might have heard of in some advertisements and from friends and family trying to be health-conscious. These brans are slowly capturing the market due to their health importance. Now the question is, if the bran is processing waste and is not desired during product development, how is it nutritious or useful? Here, research works conducted across the globe come to our
rescue and they make us aware
about the nutritional benefits of
bran. Bran mainly consists of
pericarp, aleurone layer, germ
and sometimes broken tiny
portions of husk (especially in
millet brans). These brans can
be a good source of dietary
fibres, proteins, amino acid, fats,
fatty acids, minerals, vitamins
and antioxidants. And research
further reveals that these
dietary fibres and antioxidants
complexes may help to prevent
various diseases such as
obesity, increased cholesterol
levels and even cancer related
to increased oxidative stress in
the body. Increased consumption of refined foods can lead to constipation and other bowel-related diseases, but the dietary fibres present in the brans may prevent, reduce the
risk or help to overcome such diseases. And here comes the answer to our previous query; maybe not all wastes are to be discarded; some processing wastes such as bran are nutritious and can be taken up as novel ingredients to value add the empty calorie foods such as bakery products. Rice bran is already gaining its popularity in the form of rice bran oil; oat bran is also on the same path with oat bran breakfast cereal. But there is much more in the world of bran to offer such as millet brans and bran fractions obtained during dehulling, dehusking, polishing and milling of millets. Millets itself are considered as nutri-cereals and offer a lot of health benefits. But they are hard to cook if not processed, thus making it mandatory for dehulling and dehusking before utilization, resulting in tonnes of millet brans being generated as a result of millet processing and wasted each year. Even with the great nutritional profile, therapeutic
potential and huge amount of millet bran being discarded, millets are highly understudied and underutilized.
With this idea, growing health concerns and increased consumption of bakery products in all age groups, the utilization of millet bran to develop nutrient- packed bakery products was considered for further research at our lab in Professor Jayashankar Telangana State Agricultural University. We embarked on our journey to research on millet bran only to find out that the bran was a miraculous waste. It has high levels of dietary fibres, proteins,
fats and phenolic compounds, increasing its antioxidant capacity and minerals, making it a dream-come-true novel ingredient for the value addition of bakery products. It can also
Bran is a byproduct or waste generated during the processing of cereals grains and millets. But why are we interested in bran? Does it ring some bell to you? Oh, yes! Something to do with oat bran, rice bran oil and their health benefits that you might have heard of in some advertisements and from friends and family trying to be health-conscious.