Physicochemical, rheological, and sensory properties of voluminous breads enriched by Portulaca oleracea
Wheat products like flour and bread are good carries for adding nutrients needed by the consumers. In addition, bread is the staple food of about one half of the world population and a reliable source in terms of nutrition and inexpensive diet. To improve nutritional support for low income families, it is essential to pay more attention to improving quality and diversity of available breads, minimize the wastes, and produce breads with strong sensory properties (Becker, 1995; Guyot, 2012).
Along with being a main source of energy, bread also supplies the dietary fibers, some minerals (iron, calcium), and vitamins (group B and E found in wheatgrass). The main raw materials used in bread are flour, water, yeast, salt, and other additives like sugar and fat that improve baking, sensory, and shelf-life of the product (Fisher, 1985). Using animal fats in breads is no longer a common practice given the health concerns. Currently plant fats and enrichment of products by nutritionally-rich seeds are the mainstream in food industries researches.
Improvement of texture, volume, crust, and quality of bread is one of the advantages of using fat in bread formulation. Another role that is filled is adding tastes and energy content of the product. As shown by the literature, fat tastes in breads is more desirable for the consumer than other tastes (Heenan et al., 2008).
Portulaca oleracea or pursley is a grassy annual plant in the family Oleracea with succulent stems, yellow or white small flowers, black seeds, and medicinal properties. The wild plant is a watery weed that prefers warm and arid condition and grows in a wide range of soils and climates. According to the traditional medicine, the plant has a cold and moist humour, styptic, and diuretic and decreases bile sack movement and bile flow in return (Asadi Gharneh and Hassandokht, 2008; Naeem and Khan, 2013). Pursley is a well-known plant in traditional medicine with protective effect on the liver that is used for several therapeutic purposes. It preserves the liver against the damages caused by free radical invasion and lipidic peroxidation in the endoplasmic grid of cells (Zarie et al., 2015). In addition, pursley is rich of antioxidant compounds and a good source for Q10 coenzyme (Alam et al., 2014). Phytochemical experiment on pursley essence have shown that it contains vitamins B1, A, noradrenaline, dopamine, organic acids like cinnamic, caffeic, malic, and oxalic acids, and coumarins, flavonoids, cardiac anthraquinone glycosides, and alkaloid quercetin. In addition, there have been no report of toxic effects of this plant. In addition to the said effects, pursley demonstrated anti-pain and anti-inflammatory effects. It is the richest plant source of Omega 3 (Alam et al., 2014, Uddin et al., 2014). Total fat content of the leaves is 5.83% out of which 56.33% is linolenic acid (Liu et al., 2000). The antioxidant effects of the plant are higher than BHA and BHT and its phenolic compound content is 17.88µgr in one milligram of dry weight. In addition, antibacterial effect of the plant against pathogenic bacteria have been supported (Lie et al., 2000).