Effect of Bajra Flour on Quality of Biscuits Fortified with Defatted Soy Flour

Bajra (peart millet) is a staple food of rural people of dryland regions of India but now a days coarse cereals and millets are gaining popularity amongst those who are accustomed to softer cereals like wheat and rice because of the presence of dietary fibre, beneficial in various degenerative diseases. Insoluble fraction of dietary fibre in cereal grains contains large proportion of cellulose, which has beneficial effects in the gastrointestinal tract. The soluble fractions, which consist mainly of pectin, arabinoxylan and B-glucans has the ability to lower blood serum cholesterol, through its tendency to increase viscosity in the intestine. It was reported that rats fed bread prepared from white flour fortified with B-glucan (7% by weight) had serum cholesterol significantly lower than those fed bread from unfortified flour.