# Partial Substitution of Wheat Flour with Palm Flour in Pasta Preparation
## 3 Results and Discussions
### Physical-Chemical Quality
Regarding the titratable acidity, the tested formulations showed differences among themselves (\(p<0.05\)). With the increase in sprout flour concentrations, there was a significant increase in acidity, as previously mentioned. This fact can be explained by the presence of malic acid in the flour. This increase in acidity corroborates with the decrease in the pH of the pasta. Acidity results similar to fresh pasta formulations have been described by [PERSON] et al. [31]. Close values (3.9-6.1%) were also found by [PERSON] and [PERSON] [26]. However, the control treatment without the addition of tamarind seed flour at the end of the experiment ended up with 3.9% higher acidity than that observed in these experiments. These studies point out that the addition of flour from vegetable sources tends to increase the acidity of the pasta due to the presence of organic acids such as malic, citric, and ascorbic. This can give these pastas more longevity because of the presence of bacteria, but cause a slightly acidic taste [26; 31]. The addition of palm flour directly influenced the pH values of the prepared pasta (\(p>0.05\)). As the sprout flour concentration increased, there was a noticeable decrease in pH, resulting in a more acidic pasta. This phenomenon can be attributed to the presence of malic acid in the sprouts, which probably gave this acidity to the pasta [32]. This fluctuation in pH levels aligns with results from previous studies involving pasta formulations enriched with other ingredients, such as flaxseed and rice [15; 33; 34]. According to [PERSON] [32], certain organic acids, including malic acid, have been used in pasta production to improve the stability of the fresh product during storage since the acidic product hinders the development of spoilage microorganisms. The starch content reduced significantly (\(p<0.05\)) with the addition of palm flour, having been effective up to the content of 10% of palm flour, where the reduction occurred around 28%. This product can be characterized as a light product since there was a reduction of over 25% in the content of this carbohydrate. This reduction in the amount of starch was also reported by [PERSON] et al. [35], in the study with fresh pasta added with banana flour, and by [PERSON], [PERSON], and [PERSON] [36] in fresh pasta with added alfalfa sprout flour. The importance of determining starch in pasta is because this sugar influences the viscosity, stability, cooking properties, texture, rheology, structure, and sensory attributes of this product [37]. The reduction of the starch content can result in fresh pasta with fewer calories and more sugars from palm flour, considered more advantageous for human consumption compared to starch that contains a high glycemic index, and this product may become viable for consumption. The protein content had its values positively affected by the addition of palm flour to the 10% formulation (\(p<0.05\)). The palm bud flour, after drying in an oven at a temperature of 65 \({}^{\circ}\)C, presented an amount of 6 g/100 g of proteins. This may explain the significant increase in the amount of protein in prepared pasta. It is worth mentioning that the tested concentrations did not negatively interfere with the formation of gluten, considering that there was no difficulty in forming the pasta aspect of these formulations. Similar to the data found in the present work, the protein content of fresh pasta, without enrichment, in studies by other authors shows values between 5 and 15 g/100 g of proteins. For formulations that contain flour from vegetable sources, this value varies from 7 to 15 g/100 g [26; 31; 38]. According to [PERSON] et al. [39], the total protein content of raw and cooked fresh pasta ranges from 12 to 13 g/100 g. Most of this amount is represented by the gluten proteins that form from the kneading of the dough, together with the sets of egg proteins: albumin, glutenin, and gliadin. Regarding the amount of lipids, the addition of palm flour did not affect the amount of fat in fresh pasta (Table 3).