Hydration kinetics of commercial white maize (Zea mays L.) hybrids, and associations with grain intrinsic and wet-milling properties

Abstract

The hydration kinetics of 26 commercial white maize hybrids/varieties were investigated, satisfactorily (r > 0.9; P < 0.01) described by the Peleg model and related to the physical, chemical and wet-milling properties of the maize hybrids. The Peleg constants K1 [0.142–0.294 h(g/100 g solids)−1], K2 [0.030–0.037 (g/100 g solids)−1] and equilibrium moisture content, ME, [41.76–47.83 g/100 g solids] showed genotypic differences. The distributions, associations and groupings of the maize hydration, physical, chemical and wet-milling properties were evaluated with Principal Component Analysis (PCA), Pearson's correlation coefficients and clustering analysis using Agglomerative Hierarchical Clustering (AHC). The Peleg K2 was influenced by the grain protein content and kernel density, and concomitantly impacted the starch yield. The ME also related to the starch yield, in addition to the starch recovery. The AHC analysis was extended to include 16 commercial yellow maize hybrids from our previous study. The groupings of the resulting 42 of the most widely grown maize hybrids/varieties in México confirmed the close association between maize water absorption, physical, chemical and wet-milling properties. The findings on the hydration kinetics, and the starch yield and recovery from wet-milling are of specific interests to the maize industry.