A Screening approach for The Expression of Total Amylase activity during Malting of Safrari Sorghum Cultivar (2018)
Abstract: A fractional factorial design with a level of confidence of P<0.05 was carried out to determine the factors which have an influence on total amylase activity of a Cameroonian sorghum cultivar Safrari. An equation relating total amylase activity to the factors such as grains disinfection, alkaline steeping, renewal of steeping liquor, steeping time and temperature, steeping with air-rest periods, germination time and temperature, kilning time and temperature and finally grinding malt with roots and shoots, gave a good fit to first order equation (R2=0.98). Among the eleven factors screened, the following five have shown a significant impact on total amylase activity of Safrari sorghum malting process: the renewal of the steeping liquor, germination time, kilning time and temperature and grain disinfection. Grain disinfection being the only one with a highly negative impact, meaning that the use of a disinfectant is detrimental for starch hydrolysing enzyme synthesis during malting of Safrari sorghum.
