Functionality of galactomannan extracted from Tunisian carob seed in bread dough

Gums extracted from plants are interesting additives in bread and baked products. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effect of galactomannan extracted from Tunisian carob seeds on the rheological characteristics of dough and physical properties of bread. The incorporation of the purified gum (2 %) in low bread-making quality wheat flour leads to the increases of the dough strength (W), the dough elasticity-to-extensibility ratio (P/L) and the bread volume by 35 %; 70 % and 12 % respectively. Mixolab parameters indicated that LBG incorporation induced the greatest benefits on wheat dough behaviour resulting in a significantly increased stability during mixing and decreased starch retrogradation. In conclusion, the purified gum could be recommended as improver in the bread-making performance owing to its good rheological and crumb softening effects.