Shimeles Shumi (PhD)Tigest Abera2025-05-142025-05-142024-09https://etd.aau.edu.et/handle/123456789/5475Wheat is a cereal grain that comes in different varieties and is widely consumed worldwide. The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of gluten on functional and pasting properties of flour associated to its botanical sources. The study examined the proximate, functional, and pasting properties of three types of botanically varied wheat flours. Five wheat flour samples namely Arsi Wheat flour (AWF), Bale Wheat flour (BWF), Dodola Wheat flour (DWF), Mixed Wheat flour (MWF), and Supermarket Wheat flour (SWF) were developed and evaluated using the standard method. The study showed that the gluten content of DWF was 26.73 ± 0.23% on a wet basis which is the highest among the samples. Whereas, SWF has the lowest gluten content, i.e., 21.44±0.12%. On the other hand, the crude protein content of the BWF sample was found 12.620±0.05% showing the highest among all flour samples. Besides, the SWF sample showed higher water absorption capacity whereas MWF has highest water solubility. The pasting temperatures of AWF (89.1⁰C), BWF (87.25 ⁰C) and DWF (88.8 ⁰C) which was almost lied on similar ranges. However, the BWF sample has a significantly higher final viscosity than AWF and DWF at P< 5% level. It was observed that all wheat flour samples have similar functional groups such as hydroxyl groups (O-H), aliphatic hydrocarbons (C-H), carbonyl groups (C=O) from ketones or aldehydes, and ethers or esters (C-O). In terms of bread quality, bread baked from BWF sample has the best color, texture, taste, flavor, odor, mouth feel and overall acceptability. In addition, bread based on BWF sample got better protein content. The alkaline water retention capacity of the bread samples was decreased as the storage time increased in contrast, the staling rate of the bread samples was increased as the storage time increased. The study concluded that wheat botanical origin influences gluten content which in turn affect the dough properties (elasticity, heat tolerance, leavening) and bread quality (crust, color, sponginess).en-USBotanically vary wheatfunctional propertiespasting propertiesstaling rateThesis