Millets and Millet Starch: Chemical Composition, Functional Modification, and Applications: Nutri-Cereals from Farm to Fork and Beyond

Millets, popularly known as Shree Anna, are now gaining worldwide recognition. Besides their nutritional benefits, millets have a short cultivation period, less water requirement, high adaptability towards adverse climatic conditions, and better productivity on marginal lands than the major cereal crops. Millets based products are in high demand globally because of their enormous health promoting attributes. The primary ingredient in millet is its starch, which makes up over 70% of the grain. Starch is one of the major components responsible for the structure of final food products. Product-specific properties can be achieved by modifying the structure of starches. Information deficit on millet starch has undermined its potential utilization in food and other industries.

Millets and millet starch: Chemical Composition, functional modification, and applications incorporate information about the geographical distribution, cultivation, storage, processing, bioactive compounds, health benefits and industrial uses of Millets. The book sheds light on the method of starch isolation from millets, and the method applied for tailoring millet starch functionalities for their utilization in industries. The specific roles of bioactive compounds of nutri-cereals in disease prevention are discussed in depth. Millets based food products are being increasingly developed due to their gluten free nature, and in this book, you will find comprehensive information on millets based food products. Researchers and product developers working on millets will find useful information on recent developments in the production, cultivation, and potential industrial applications of nutri-cereals. It presents thorough information regarding the industrial potential of some lesser known or forgotten cereals starches and their role in maintaining good health, achieving food security. Researchers, stakeholders, students, and farmers would find this book helpful in learning about millets and their applications. Experts in the area have compiled it and can serve as a handy document for the entrepreneurs.

Dr. Jaspal Singh is currently working as Associate Professor in Department of Chemistry, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India. He has done his Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry from Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar. Dr. Singh is a double post graduate; M.Sc. Chemistry from IIT, Roorkee, Uttarakhand, India and M.E. in Polymer Chemistry from Delhi College of Engineering, Delhi. He is engaged in research work related to chemical kinetics, synthesis of drug, polymer science basically in emulsion and emulsion paint technology. He is recipient of GATE 96, 98, NET (UGC-CSIR) 2000. He has over 15 years of research/academic experience, over 66 publications in reputed international/national peer-reviewed scientific journals and supervised 6 successful Ph.D’s. Dr. Singh has visited several research laboratories and industries. He has chaired various technical sessions, organized several conferences, delivered invited talks and presented more than 60 research papers in national/international conferences. Dr. Singh has authored 4 books credited for his research work. He is actively working as convener Indian Science Congress (Haridwar Chapter). He is running research project funded from Uttarakhand Science Education Research Centre as Principal Investigator.

Dr. Mayank Kumar Malik is presently working as Assistant Professor (C) in Department of Chemistry, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India. He is Associate member of Royal Society of Chemistry, London. He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Chemistry from Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), Haridwar, India. Dr. Malik has also done Post Graduate Diploma in GIS & Remote Sensing with distinction from C.C.S. University, Meerut and PGDBA from Anna Malai University, India. Dr. Malik has also worked as Research Assistant (Project) in Uttarakhand Council of science and technology sponsored research project, at Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, Gurukula Kangri (Deemed to be University), India. He has over five years of research/ academic experience, over 13 national and internationally published book chapters. He has 15 publications in reputed international peer-reviewed scientific journals, presented over 25 research papers in national/international conferences, published many articles in newspapers, acted as resource person and delivered 3 invited talks. He has one Indian patent published in his research kitty. He has received best paper presentation award conferred by Association of Pharmacy Professional (Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand Chapter) and excellence award for outstanding performance in research conferred by IPGA (Uttrakhand State Branch). His research interests include millet science; starch structure, functionalities and modifications; starch transitions in pharmaceutical and food/non-food industry; and the thermal, rheological properties of bio-polymers.