Basmati rice: its characteristics and identification

BACKGROUND: Basmati comprises a small group of premium aromatic rice from India (and Pakistan), prized in international trade. These varieties have not so far been fully characterized physicochemically. To address this gap, all available recognized as well as unrecognized varieties/lines of basmati and its derivatives (crosses) were exhaustively studied for their physical, chemical and cooking properties over eight years. RESULTS: It was found that all five basmati land races ('traditional' varieties) had similar properties. They had substantial a, distal end (DE) shape of brown and milled rice; good aroma; intermediate amylose (similar to 230 g kg(-1)), alkali score and viscogram breakdown (BDr); and they yielded a high elongation ratio (> 1.9) and good 'rings' after cooking. The 23 Indian crossbred (basmati derivative) varieties/lines (plus 13 supermarket samples of Pakistani basmati) studied were different. Each of them differed in at least two or three and sometimes several of the above properties from the land races. CONCLUSION: These results provided a framework of what constituted basmati properties and a benchmark to decide how close a cross was. Additionally, the varying combinations of the observed values of the ten or more key indices enabled any of the above varieties/lines to be identified by simple physicochemical techniques. (C) 2008 Society of Chemical Industry.