The Effect of Malting on the Extractability of Proteins and its Relationship to Diastatic Activity in Sorghum

Diastatic activity, total protein content, water-extractable protein and water-extractable contents in malted grains of several sorghum cultivars showed wide variation. Protein fractionation studies of malted grain of selected cultivars showed that cultivars with high diastatic activity exhibited high amounts of albumin-globulin fraction in malted sorghum. Diastatic activity was significantly and positively correlated with the water-extractable protein and the water-extractables contents of malted grain. The data indicate that the water-extractable components are good indicators for predicting diastatic activity and indirectly the malting quality. Water-extractable protein and water-extractable determinations are simple and rapid methods that can be used to screen a large number of sorghum cultivars for malting quality.