Rice and rice bran from different cultivars: physicochemical, spectroscopic, and thermal analysis characterization

Different rice cultivars have been developed in order to obtain grains with optimal cultivation and compositional characteristics, which affect their potential applications. Therefore, the characterization of these different rice cultivars is required. In the present study, white rice and rice bran from the cultivars BRS AG, BRS Pampa, and BRS 358 provided by EMBRAPA were characterized by physicochemical means, infrared spectroscopy (FTIR-ATR), and thermal analyses. The moisture, lipid, and ash contents did not differ among the white rice cultivars. The cultivar BRS Pampa exhibited the highest protein and lowest total carbohydrate contents. Both BRS Pampa and BRS 358 showed a higher phytic acid content than BRS AG. The highest total carbohydrate content was observed in BRS AG white rice samples, which confirmed its suitability for use in ethanol production. Among the rice bran samples, BRS 358 demonstrated the highest contents of lipid, protein, and phytic acid, and the lowest total carbohydrate content. FTIR-ATR and thermal analyses were suitable for correlating the physicochemical properties of white rice and rice bran with the molecular composition in the respective cultivars studied. Both white rice and rice bran exhibited a thermal degradation temperature at 300 °C. Lipids, protein, ash and phytic acid were considerably higher in rice bran than white rice in all cultivars studied, which demonstrates the importance of the use of this by-product.