Unpicking the changes in content, structural properties and in vitro digestibility of pigeon pea seed proteins as influenced by imbibition and heating in sodium bicarbonate

Abstract

Background: Pigeon pea proteins are underutilised mainly because of the long cooking time of the legume seeds. Traditionally, this is mitigated by cooking pigeon pea seeds in sodium bicarbonate (NaHCO3). This study investigated whether, and to what degree, directly cooking pigeon pea seeds in water (CS0W) or NaHCO3 (CS0N), soaking in water or NaHCO3 for 4 h (CS4W and CS4N, respectively) or for 24 h (CS24W and CS24N, respectively) before cooking in water or NaHCO3 influenced the protein content, structural property and in vitro digestibility. Results: In vitro protein digestibility of pigeon pea seed flour was lowest in the raw seeds and increased with CS0W