they form an integral part of indian diet , especially for those who have type 2 diabetes for whom white rice is considered less desirable because of its high gi . chapattis and other flatbreads are popular in europe also where they form a part of daily diet among members of ethnic minority groups who follow traditional dietary patterns . chapattis are made from whole - wheat flour and cooked on hot flat open griddles . they can also be prepared by substituting wheat flour with other cereal or legume flours at different levels . incorporation of cereal brans at proportions up to 10% has resulted in good quality chapattis . the color and appearance of chapattis were found to be good with substitution of wheat flour with up to 10% cereal brans . generally , chapatti is prepared from whole - wheat flour obtained by grinding wheat in a disk mill ( locally known as chakki ) . chapatti quality can be assessed from its softness and flexibility which may be affected by flour protein quantity and quality . the chapatti quality is also influenced by the dough consistency , which in turn depends mainly on the quantity of water added . bran is the hard outer layer of cereal grains , rich in a myriad of healthy phytochemicals , namely , phenolics , flavonoids , glucans , and pigments . unfortunately , these nutrition - rich components are often discarded during milling out of ignorance , organoleptic reasons , and rancidity problems . knowing the phytochemical constituents and pharmacological profile of bran is expected to give insight to their potential application in promotion of health . cereal brans , the by - products obtained in large amounts in grain milling industry , considered as inedible material for humans , is mostly used as animal feed . however , brans are concentrated source of dietary fibre and other nutrients ( proteins , b - vitamins , and minerals ) . brans are generally composed mainly of insoluble cellulose and hemicellulose , with only about 5 percent soluble fibre , and have little hypercholesterolemia effect . bran contributes a pleasing , sweet , nutty flavour when added as a flavour enhancer in a variety of food products . commercial wheat flour and oat bran ( baggry 's india ltd . , new delhi , india ) were purchased from local market . chappati was prepared by the addition of cereal brans ( wheat , oat , and rice ) singly and in combination ( w  :  r  :  o :  : 2  :  1.5  :  1.5 ) to wheat flour at 5 and 10% bran supplementation . 
 chapatti . cereal brans singly and in combination at 5 and 10% level were added to wheat flour and required quantity of water which were mixed manually to obtain dough of suitable consistency . the dough was divided into four equal parts and moulded into circular chapattis of 15.0  cm in diameter with rolling pin and board . traditional home baking procedure was followed to bake chapattis on iron plate ( tawa ) . chapattis were cooled and comparative evaluation was done using the following criteria which also included observations on dough handling properties . characteristic 

 score grade 
 dough handling  nonsticky  sticky  slightly sticky  very sticky  puffing of chapatti  full  partial  nil . the instrument was calibrated with the user supplied black plate calibration standard that was used for zero setting . the instruments were placed on the plate and three exposures at different places were conducted . readings were displayed as a , b , and l color parameters according to the cielab system of color measurement . the a value ranges from 100 ( redness ) to + 100 ( greenness ) and the b value ranges from 100 ( blueness ) to + 100 ( yellowness ) , while the l value , indicating the measure of lightness , ranges from 0 ( black ) to 100 ( white ) . was evaluated by using texture analyser ( stable micro systems , model ta - hdi , uk ) . one strip at a time was placed on the centre of the sample holder and the blade was allowed to cut the chapatti strip . the force ( n ) required to cut chapatti strip into two pieces was recorded . bran enriched products such as extruded snacks , breakfast cereal - porridge , and chapatti were evaluated for sensory attributes ( appearance , colour , texture , flavor , and overall acceptability ) through a panel of semi - trained judges using 9-point hedonic scale . water activity of bran enriched products was estimated using water activity meter having hygrolab 3 bench - top indicator ( rotrogenic company ) . standard aoac procedure   was followed for free fatty acids determination in cereal bran enriched products . product sample ( 5  g ) was taken in flask and 50  ml benzene was added and kept for 30  min for extraction of free fatty acids . after extraction , 5  ml extract , 5  ml benzene , 10  ml alcohol , and phenolphthalein as indicator were taken in flask and titrated against 0.02  n koh till light pink colour disappeared : 
 ( 1)%ffa  ( %  oleic  acid )  = 2820.02  n  kohml  of  alkali  useddilution  factor1000wt  of  sample  taken  100 ,  moisture content by method of aacc 2000 ,  total plate count by method of maturin and peeler . moisture content by method of aacc 2000 , total plate count by method of maturin and peeler . data collected from the aforesaid experiments was subjected to statistical analysis for standard error and duncan 's multiple range test using minitab software . the quality evaluation of chapattis prepared by different bran enriched levels is mentioned in table 1 . the pooled scores obtained by the various bran enriched levels of chapattis for appearance , color , texture , and flavor were 7.92 , 7.18 , 7.68 , and 8.10 for wheat bran , rice bran , oat bran , and bran in combination enriched chapattis , respectively . the overall acceptability at 5 and 10 percent level of supplementation was 7.65 and 7.80 , respectively . reported that chapattis , prepared by the addition of 10% bran , showed better performance and were quite comparable with whole - wheat flour regarding the proximate components and sensory attributes . dough handling characteristics of bran enriched chapattis do not show much variation with respect to type of bran used . except for rice bran incorporated dough for chapatti ( slightly sticky ) , all others showed nonsticky behavior during dough development . all types of bran enriched chapattis showed full puffing except 10% rice bran enriched chapattis in which partial puffing during chapatti preparation was visualised . the data presented in table 2 depicted color and texture analysis of bran enriched chapatti . statistically significant ( p  0.05 ) difference was observed in l value of bran enriched chapatti . l value of various cereal bran enriched chapattis was 64.37 , 59.12 , 60.04 , and 61.92 for wheat , rice , oat , and bran in combination , respectively . l value showed decreasing trend with increase in level of supplementation of cereal brans in chapattis . the l value of 66.83 , 61.59 , and 61.14 was observed at 0 , 5 , and 10% level of supplementation , which means slightly lower brightness at higher levels of supplementation . a value of wheat , rice , oat , and bran in combination was 4.18 , 5.24 , 4.71 , and 4.28 , respectively . with increase in level of supplementation , a value ( redness ) increased from 3.14 at 0% level of supplementation to 5.11 at 10% level . altan et al .   stated that , among the color parameters , the l and a values showed marked changes due to addition of tomato pomace . an increase in tomato pomace level decreased the l value of the sample and increased the a value of samples . also , increasing bran level supplementation resulted in a decrease in the b value of chapattis . a negative correlation was found between a value and b value of the enriched chapattis . cutting force ( n ) reflects the texture of the chapattis and it stimulates the biting action of the human teeth on chapattis . cutting force ( n ) of various bran enriched chapattis varied as 6.56  n , 5.92  n , 5.30  n , and 5.99 cutting force increased due to presence of more fibres at higher enrichment levels . at 0 , 5 , and 10 percent level of supplementation , the corresponding cutting force ( n ) was 5.25 , 5.91 , and 5.97  n , respectively . manu and prasada rao   reported that cutting force of chapattis prepared from different wheat varieties ranged from 4.22 to 6.96  n. hemalatha et al . also reported that the cutting force ( n ) for chapattis made from different wheat varieties ranged between 4.22 and 6.67 . the variation in cutting force might be because of variation in protein and fibre content of brans which determine the resistance offered by the samples . increase in fibre content might have increased the water holding capacity of chapattis and hence increased moisture content ( % ) with addition of bran . reported that moisture content ( % ) of bran enriched chapattis was 31.0 percent while control had moisture content of 30.2 percent . maximum water activity was observed in rice bran enriched chapattis ( 0.462 ) which was statistically at par with water activity of bran in combination enriched chapattis ( 0.455 ) . water activity of oat and wheat bran enriched chapattis was 0.429 and 0.406 , respectively . it was observed from data that water activity of samples was positively correlated with moisture content and followed the same pattern . manthey et al .   reported that water activity of bran / fibre enriched pasta increased with bran supplementation over control . the increase in water activity is correlated with increase in moisture content at higher levels of bran supplementation . the data pertaining to free fatty acids ( % ) is presented in table 3 . the free fatty acids ( % ) of bran enriched chapattis ranged from 0.057 to 0.085 . the highest free fatty acids were recorded in rice bran enriched chapattis ( 0.085% ) , being the lowest in wheat bran enriched chapattis ( 0.057 ) . it is also evident from the table that , with increase in level of bran supplementation , free fatty acids increased significantly . the free fatty acids ( % ) at 5 and 10 percent level of supplementation were 0.067 and 0.079 percent , respectively . khan et al .   reported similar results regarding free fatty acids while studying development and evaluation of long shelf life ambient stable chapattis . a significant variation ( p  0.05 ) was observed in total plate count of bran extruded chapattis . total plate count of enriched chapattis varied from 6.5 to 17  10  cfu / g . it is also evident from the table that with increase in bran supplementation level , a slight increase in total plate content was observed . the mean value of total plate content for 5 and 10% level of supplementation was 10.25  10 and 12.5  10  cfu / g , respectively . frazier and westhoff   reported that total plate content increased from 2.3  10 to 3.4  10  cfu / g for flour . quality characteristics for chapatti revealed that dough handling and puffing of bran enriched chapattis prepared by 5 and 10% level of bran supplementation did not vary significantly . all types of bran enriched chapattis except rice bran enriched chapattis showed nonsticky behavior during dough handling . rice bran enriched chapatti recorded maximum moisture ( % ) , water activity , and free fatty acids ( % ) . with increase in level of supplementation , moisture , water activity , and free fatty acids increased . the future emphasis can be given on development of functional flatbreads which has got increased demand due to increase in health conscious consumer base .
cereal brans singly and in combination were blended at varying levels ( 5 and 10% ) for development of chapattis . cereal bran enriched chapattis were assessed for quality and physicochemical characteristics . on the basis of quality assessment , 
 10% enrichment level for chapatti was the best . 
 moisture content , water activity , and free fatty acids remained stable during the study period . 
 quality assessment and physicochemical characteristics of bran enriched chapattis carried out revealed that dough handling and puffing of bran enriched chapattis prepared by 5 and 10% level of bran supplementation did not vary significantly . 
 all types of bran enriched chapattis except rice bran enriched chapattis showed nonsticky behavior during dough handling . 
 bran enriched chapattis exhibited full puffing character during preparation . 
 the sensory attributes showed that both 5 and 10% bran supplemented chapattis were acceptable .