Physicochemical Properties of Starch Isolated from Betahealth, a High β-Glucan Barley Cultivar

This study investigated the physicochemical properties of starch from the newly developed β-glucan-rich barley cultivar Betahealth. The cultivar was bred through a three-way cross between Betaone (F1, Shikoku Hadaka 97 × Glacier AC38) and Dahyang, and its potential as a high-β-glucan food supplement was evaluated. Betahealth’s general composition comprised 11.8%, 1.06%, 2.74%, 3.66%, 56.6%, and 12.3% protein, ash, crude fat, amylose, starch, and β-glucan, respectively. The compositional characteristics of the parent cultivars varied among developed cultivars. The average starch granule size decreased in the following order: Dahyang (12.2 μm), Shikoku Hadaka 97 (11.4 μm), Glacier AC38 (8.63 μm), and Betahealth (6.96 μm). Granule size greatly influenced gelatinization properties, with smaller granules showing higher onset, peak, and conclusion temperatures during gelatinization. Gelatinization temperatures significantly differed among samples, except in Betahealth. Amylose content strongly correlated with pasting properties, with Shikoku Hadaka 97 (10.4%) and Betahealth (8.75%) showing lower amylose content than Glacier AC38 (43.4%) and Dahyang (43.8%). Thus, differences in starch granule size, gelatinization properties, and pasting characteristics depended on cultivar, suggesting that these factors are important for selecting cultivars suitable for specific processing applications.