Vol. 12, Issue 3 (2023)

Author(s):
Harish Dhal, Ajeet Singh, Dinesh Kumar, Archana Singh, Anju M Singh, Anjali Anand, Tejveer Singh and Sneh Narwal

Abstract:
Barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) is the most popular raw material for malting and brewing purposes. In India, most of the malting and brewing industries are importing the exotic barley genotypes as the malting quality of exotic barley genotypes is considered superior to indigenous genotypes. To find out the reason behind this, a small study was planned with the objective to characterize exotic and indigenous barley genotypes for different biochemical traits important for malting. Total starch, amylose, protein, beta-glucan, beta-amylase, phenolic content and antioxidant activity were analyzed in two biological replications of 10 barley genotypes (5 each of exotic and indigenous). The results suggest that the exotic genotypes have high amylose content, low grain beta-glucan, high beta-amylase activity. Antioxidant activity was significantly high as compared to indigenous genotypes. It can be concluded that to improve the malting potential of indigenous genotypes, there is a need to breed for barley genotypes with low β-glucan content, higher levels of amylolytic enzymes which can compete with exotic genotypes and reduce the cost of importing barley in future.