Composition of the seeds of some Amaranthus species

✍ Scribed by Rekha S. Singhal; Pushpa R. Kulkarni

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1988
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 361 KB
• Volume: 42
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-5142
• DOI: 10.1002/jsfa.2740420406

✦ Synopsis

The seeds of the five commonly consumed Amaranthus species have been analysed f o r their chemical composition and starch characteristics. A notably high fat, protein and ash content in the seeds of a sample of A. teunifolious as compared with other species has been demonstrated. All the samples analysed had a high oxalate and phytic acid content. The size of the starch granules from all the samples was in the range 0.8-2-3pm and the circular shape of granules from all the species was strikingly similar. Amaranthus polygamous and A. gracilis had low amylose starches (111.7 and 97.1 g kg-1, respectively), and A. spinosus and A. teunifolious had appreciable proportions of amylose (166-7 and 245.0 g kg-', respectively).