Physicochemical characteristics, ATR-FTIR molecular interactions and in vitro starch and protein digestion of thermally-treated whole pulse flours.

Hydrothermal treatments, annealing (ANN) and heat moisture treatment (HMT) were applied to four whole pulse flours (black bean, broad bean, chickpea and lentil) with the aim to increase their slow digestible (SDS) and resistant starch (RS) fractions. In order to assess differences in their molecular interactions, they were analyzed and compared by ATR-FTIR before and after in vitro digestion. Both hydrothermal treatments promoted changes on starch granular architecture, being reflected on their thermal and pasting properties, that where positively correlated with their amylose and protein contents (R=0.