Pulses form stable dietary components for majority of population across the world. Different people consume pulses in different ways like Uncooked, Soaked, and cooked or only cooked without SOAKING. All these processing techniques lead to changes in the nutritional value of the pulses. Studies have also reported that in addition to nutritional components like Proteins, Carbohydrates, and fats, pulses also contain anti-nutritional components like Lectins, Tannins, and Polyphenols that greatly interfere with digestion of pulses in the human intestine. Hence in the current study a comprehensive review is being compiled to evaluate the nutritional and antinutritional aspects of pulses and effect of processing methods on invitro protein and starch digestibility of the pulses.

Background and objectives Color is one of the most important properties for consumer acceptance. Pigments (natural dye compounds) are the safest dyes for oral use. Anthocyanins are the most important group of natural pigments after chlorophyll that are non toxic, water soluble and widely present in plant cytoplasm. These flavonoid pigments are responsible for the colors of red, blue and purple in many fruits, vegetables and flowers. Echium Amoenum is one of the most important medicinal plants in the country. This plant is cultivated in many parts of the world for therapeutic purposes and uses many flowers and leaves of this plant. The general objective of this research was to optimize the conditions for extraction of anthocyanin pigment from the Echium Amoenum petals. Materials and Methods In order to determine the optimum conditions for the highest extraction of anthocyanin pigment from Echium Amoenum petals by solvent SOAKING (methanol/water) effects of three variables of temperature (60, 50 and 40 ° C), time (3, 4 and 5 h) and the weight ratio of Echium Amoenum petals to the solvent (3 and 5 g). Therefore, 18 treatments were designed in accordance with a complete full factorial design. Methanol and water were mixed at 0. 5 to 1. 5% volumetric/volumetric ratio. Extraction conditions were considered in accordance with the design of table treatments. The amount of anthocyanin extracted from each treatment was measured by differential pH method by spectrophotometer. Using the results of the tests, the best conditions for extracting the extract from Echium Amoenum petals were predicted with the highest anthocyanin level. Statistical analyzes were done in Minitab 16 software as a full factorial design. Results The linear effects of temperature, time and weight ratio of Echium Amoenum petals to the solvent on anthocyanin content were significant. Interaction and quadratic effects of temperature, time and weight ratio of Echium Amoenum petals on anthocyanin changes were not significant. The results showed that extracted anthocyanin content increased significantly with increasing temperature, time and weight ratio of Echium Amoenum petals to the solvent. Optimal conditions to extract the highest amount of anthocyanin extracts from Echium Amoenum petals (229. 191 mg/l) were predicted at temperature, time and weight ratio of Echium Amoenum petals at 60 ° C, 5 h and 5 g, respectively. The optimal predictive conditions for extraction of pigment from Echium Amoenum petals were performed in the laboratory. The results showed that there was no significant difference between predicted and experimental extraction conditions. Conclusion By replacing natural dyes instead of conventional synthetic dyes in foods, can take a positive step towards the health and safety of food. A full factorial design is a safe way to predict the conditions for the extraction of pigments from plants.

In this study, water absorption behavior of three varieties of rice (Fajr, Neda and Shafagh) was determined at 25, 30, 40, 50, 60 and 70oC by recording the weight increase in grain with respect to time. Physical properties (dimensions, geometric mean diameter, volume and sphericity), bulk density, kernel density and porosity of rice varieties were also evaluated as a function of SOAKING temperature in the range of 25–70oC. The results showed that the SOAKING temperature had great effect on the SOAKING behavior of rice varieties. We found that the water absorption increased when the SOAKING temperature increased from 25 to 70oC and the SOAKING time decreased with increase in SOAKING temperature. There is rapid water uptake initially, which is followed by a slower rate in the later stages and comes to equilibrium or saturation moisture content. Physical properties (dimensions, geometric mean diameter, volume and sphericity) of rice varieties are SOAKING temperature dependent and relationships between physical properties and their corresponding SOAKING temperatures were determined. Bulk density, kernel density and porosity of rice varieties changed non linearly with SOAKING temperature. The bulk density of rice was found to decrease to less value at SOAKING temperature of 40oC and increase from there to maximum value at SOAKING temperature of 70oC. The bulk density of Fajr, Neda and Shafagh varieties changed from 732.6 to 768.4, from 720.4 to 777.9 and from 705.6 to 788 kg/m3, respectively. The kernel density of rice was found to increase to maximum value at SOAKING temperature of 40oC and decrease from there to minimum value at SOAKING temperature of 70oC. The kernel density of Fajr, Neda and Shafagh varieties changed from 1230.1 to 1245.1, from 1285.1 to 1362.4 and from 1229.7 to 1389.5 kg/m3, respectively. Porosity changes of rice varieties followed a similar pattern during SOAKING process and after increasing at SOAKING temperature of 40oC, decreased to minimum value at SOAKING temperature of 70oC. The porosity of Fajr, Neda and Shafagh varieties changed from 43.3 to 56.1, from 42.7 to 51.6 and from 41.4 to 44.0%, respectively.

The effect of power ultrasound (20 kHz, 800, and 1000W) for duration of 20, 40, and 60 minutes on physicochemical properties of two rice varieties of: Tarom and Neda were investigated and then with the conventional SOAKING method (controlled temperature of 47oC) compared. Results indicated the maximum level of water sorption of rice, was observed at 60 minutes past of ultrasound treatment (1000W) and whilst the lowest observed in the treatment of 20 minutes past of rice being soaked. The highest rates of TDS and EC were observed for Tarom variaty, i.e., observed for 60 minutes of sonication (800 W) while the lowest occurring 20 minutes after SOAKING treatment. The highest rice length obtained was observed for Neda variety following 20 minutes of ultrasound treatment (1000 watts). Results finally indicated that the pretreatment of rice using ultrasound, as compared with the conventional method is positively effective in the process of rice being soaked.