In vitro digestibility of rice and barley in forms of raw flour and cooked kernels

Digestion properties of 3 types of cereals, white rice, brown rice, and barley, were measured after cooking or grinding. Regardless of the processing methods, white rice showed the highest rate and the greatest extent of digestion, whereas barley showed the lowest values. During the early digestion period, cooked white rice kernels had a larger k (kinetic constant) value than uncooked white rice flour, indicating that cooking induced faster digestion than grinding. In the case of brown rice and barley, the cell wall in cooked kernels remained intact and resulted in a lower k values than those of uncooked flour. However, after 3 hr of digestion, the total digestion extent was greater for the cooked brown rice and barley than that for uncooked flours. The high content of slowly digestible starch (SDS) in cooked brown rice and barley might be due to the starch fraction which was protected by the cell wall. The resistant starch (RS) content, however, was greater for the uncooked flours than that for cooked kernels. The cooked kernels of 3 cereal samples tested showed higher glycemic index (GI) values than the uncooked flours.