Improvement in bioavailability of minerals of chickpea and blackgram cultivars through processing and cooking methods

Abstract

Cooking, autoclaving, sprouting and cooking of sprouts of soaked seeds of four cultivars of chickpea (Cicer arietinum) and four of blackgram (Vigna mungo) improved in vitro HCl-extractability of calcium, phosphorus, iron, zinc, copper and manganese contents. Increase in the extractability of minerals was maximum in cooking of sprouts followed by sprouting, autoclaving and ordinary cooking of soaked seeds. However, availability of minerals of soaked seeds in the absence of further treatments was on a par with unprocessed (raw) seeds. Cultivar differences in respect of extract ability of minerals were also significant (P < 0.05) in both food legumes.