3. PREAMBLE TO THE DESCRIPTION

ROVISIONAL
The following specification describes the invention

COMPLETE
The following specification particularly describes the invention and the manner in which it
is to be performed
A new process for dehulling minor millets including proso millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, little millet and kodo millet is developed for its easy dehulling and better recovery. In the process the millet seeds are conditioned to a predetermined moisture level and duration at a specified temperature. The hull gets toughened after this pretreatment. fhen the seed is fed to a machine where specific compression and shear force is applied for removal of the hull.
Compression and shear causes relatively easier removal of the seed coat because bond between the hull and cotyledon becomes weak and toughened hull is easily peeled off. The hull is removed from the mixture by using aspiration action. Very little (less than 0.1%) broken and powder formation takes place during dehulling. Only hull is separated in the process and other parts including bran and germ remains intact. In this process a minimum of 90 percent, seeds are dehulled.
The dehulled and unhulled seeds are separated using any locally available grader. Dehulled seeds are dried using hot air or sun drying to bring moisture content to 10% (dry basis).
Dehulled seeds are then polished using specific abrasive type of polisher for a predetermined time at predetermined moisture content. During polishing, the bran and germ of the seed is removed and polished seed is obtained. The time of polishing is dependent upon the end use of the polished cotyledons. The bran obtained in this process is free from hull and hence may be utilized for oil extraction and other applications.
Polished seeds are pulverized using any locally available burr mill or hammer mill to required particle size. The flour thus obtained is highly refined millet flour for further uses. Since no germ and bran is present in the polished cotyledon, the storability of the flour jnay be_better.

4. DESCRIPTION (Description shall start from the next page.)
Though millets and sorghum account for only 4.7% of the world grain production (Babatunde, and Manyasa, 2002), they are extremely important in the semi-arid and sub-humid zones as staples and ethno-botanical crops. These crops are major source energy and protein for millions of people in Asia and Africa. Small or minor millets include proso millet {Panicum miliaceum I..), foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.). barnyard millet {Echinodoa crusgalli L.), little millet {Panicum miliare), finger millet {Eleusine coracana) and kodo millet {Paspalum sorobiculatum). These are also popularly known as coarse cereals and included in the broad category of cereals. These millets are nutritionally superior to rice and wheat (Subramanian and Viswanathan, 2007). These are rich in protein, mineral and vitamins (Rao, 1989) and contain higher proportion of dietary fiber than rice or wheat (Mallesi and Hadimani, 1993). Presence of all the required nutrients in millets makes them suitable for industrial scale utilization in manufacture of foodstuffs like baby foods, snack foods and dietary food products etc from both grain and flour.
Prior Art:
Usually millet seeds have four parts namely hull, bran, germ and endosperm. The hull contains mainly indigestible fibers. The bran covers the endosperm whereas the germ is very small and located on the central side at the base of the grain. Bran and germ are rich in oil and hence affect the storage quality of millets.
In the process of converting millets in to number of products, they undergo number of unit operations like pearling, grinding, mixing, extrusion, baking, packaging, transportation etc. In the process of pearling, it is necessary to remove the hull, bran and germ to increase the shelf life of the dchulled grain and flour. Usually pearling of millets is done with abrasive mills. Adeyemi (1983) milled sorghum using Buehler mill. Francisco et al. (1982) dehulled pearl millet and sorghum in laboratory abrasive mill. Neither millet nor sorghum de-germed during dehulling. Fractionation of sorghum produced 10-14% bran (fines and flakes), 5-43% broken (small and large), 41-84% whole grain. Francisco, et al, (1981) dehulled pearl millets using laboratory abrasive mill. Malleshi and Desikachar (1981) studied the suitability of roller flourmill, hammer mill and plate grinder for obtaining refined flour from malted ragi. Lorenz et. al (1980) dehulled proso millet with barley pearler. Perten (1977) showed that wheat milling technology could be utilized for millet and sorghum milling. Kotlyar et al (1973) optimized machine parameters for husking of Saratovskoe 853 millet grain using small rubber rollers and based on findings, a GDF laboratory husking machine was developed. Malleshi (2003 and 2004) obtained an US and Indian patents for process of decorticating finger millet using abrasive mill, fazaro and Favier (2000) used NaOH for debranning sorghum and millets. Besides these, several other scientists had worked on milling of millets using abrasive type of milling mechanism.
At present dehulling of the millets in India is done in abrasive type of mills. The main disadvantage of abrasive dehulling is that the hull, bran, germ and powder of endosperm created during milling are mixed together and hence goes as waste. Similarly the loss of endosperm in the form of broken and powder takes place. Hence. therc is a need to develop a suitable dehulling process for millets so that all these fractions can be obtained separately without mixing with other fractions of seed. The dehulling losses should also be reduced.
In the process presently followed by industry, about 5-43% broken arc formed during milling of sorghum (Francisco, et. al, 1981), which goes as waste due to presence of hull. Besides this the process requires very nigh energy to process the millets to get refined flour.

The present invention gives a process for dehulling of millets using a simple and safe pretreatment and using compression and shear for dehulling, abrasion for removal of bran and germ and grinding with burr mill. In this process, the seed is dehulled first and then the bran and germ is removed. This dehulling system neatly and almost completely separates the toxic and indigestible hull from the seed. Recovery of endosperm (the main product for making refined flour) is qualitatively and quantitatively higher with this process. After polishing, the bran and germ obtained may be better used for animal feed, oil extraction or some other uses.
Objective of the Invention
Main objective of this invention is therefore development of a pretreatment process to loosen the bond between hull and cotyledon of minor millets including proso millet (Panicum miliaceum L.). foxtail millet (Setaria italica L.), barnyard millet (Echinodoa crusgalli L.), little millet {Panicum miliare), finger millet {Eleusine coracand) and kodo millet {Paspalum sorobiculatum). This will reduce the forces required to dehull the seed.
The second objective is to optimize the machine parameters of compression and shear mechanism of dehulling system based on the pretreatment developed. The machine requires lesser energy, neatly separates hull without loss of endosperm.
The third objective is to evolve and optimize a suitable polishing mechanism for removal of bran and germ from the dehulled millets.
The fourth objective is to select and optimize the machine and process parameters of grinding system to get refined flour.
Invention therefore provides a better process and machine for milling millets to get refined Hour which comprise
a) Pretreatment of millets with water in a fixed grain to water ratio for a specified time at specified temperature.
b) Optimization of machine parameters of compression and shear dehulling system for millet seeds based on the pretreatment given above.
c) Dehulling of millet seeds at the optimized machine conditions. The hull is to be separated using blower.
d) Adjustment of moisture of the seed for optimum polishing the endosperm.
e) Optimization of machine and process parameters of polishing system for millet seeds for removal of bran and germ. The bran and germ is to be separated using blower.
f) Grinding of polished endosperm to get refined flour of desired particle size.
g) Complete new technology for milling minor millets.
The present method is a promise in decreasing the losses during milling of minor millets. It will provide an easy, better and energy efficient method for milling minor millets to get refined flour. The above named minor millets to be used for producing refined flour by this process should be first cleaned and graded (using any conventional air screen cleaner and grader).
The next step involves adjusting the moisture content of the seed to a predetermined level viz. 5 to 15% on wet basis, by sprinkling the water on its surface and tempering the seeds for a predetermined time. This pretreatment toughened the hull and loosens it from the rest of the seed contained within.

Immediately after the end of the treatment period, the seed is dehulled immediately using a machine based on compression and shear mechanism.
Differential speed roller dehulling machine is used for dehulling the pretreated seed. It consists of two rolls placed at a clearance of about 0.1-1.0 mm, which may vary according to the seed si/e. The rolls are spring loaded to avoid the breakage of the endosperm during dehulling. Compression and shear causes dehulling of the seed because bond between the hull and cotyledon becomes weak after pretreatment. The hull is removed from the dehulled lot using aspirator. The optimum moisture range and roller clearance for dehulling the millets is given in Table 1.
Table 1: Example of optimum roller clearance and moisture content range for dehulling millets
(Table Removed)

The dehulled seeds are then separated using any conventional grader. Dehulled seeds are dried to bring moisture content to 10%. In this process, the bran and germ remain intact during dehulling and hence only hull is removed.
Dehulled millet seeds are then polished using abrasive type of polishing machine. The dehulled seeds are polished for a predetermined time in the machine to remove bran and germ. The polishing time depends upon extent of bran removal to be achieved. For example, a time of 15 seconds is sufficient to remove all the bran from the dehulled millets using emery of 36 grade in the abrasive mill. In case complete white grain is required, the polishing time may be increased to 20-25 seconds. All germ and bran is removed in this process. The bran and germ is separated using blower.
The polished millet seeds are then ground to fine powder using burr mill. In this the polished grain is fed to the burr mill at a feed rate recommended by the manufacturer for specific machine settings. The grinding is done in a way that temperature of the flour does not increase much to avoid any loss of nutrients. Refined millet flour of required particle size is obtained after grinding.
The novelty of the process over conventional one are as follows:
1. In this process for "production of refined millets flour", dehulling is carried out prior to removal of bran and germ, whereas the hull, bran and germ are simultaneously removed and mixed during the conventional process of pearling the millets.
2. The pretreatment of millets in order to soften/ loosen the hull from the endosperm in this process is easy and safe.
3. Neat removal of the hull almost entirely in this process (by shearing action) as compared to removal of hull as scraps in the conventional process (by abrasion).

4. Superior quality/ purity of the product (viz. refined endosperm) and also superior quality/ purity of the byproduct (viz., bran and hull)
5. No loss of endosperm, bran or germ takes place in comparison to the conventional process wherein the loss of endosperm is as high as 4-10% while the hull-bran-germ mixture (About 30% of the input raw material) goes as waste.
6. The process gives all the fractions of the seeds separately and hence each part (viz., endosperm, hull, bran & germ) of seed may be better utilized as per their applications.
References:
1. Adeyemi. l.A. 1983. Dry milling od sorghum for ogi manufacture. J of Cereal Science. 1 (3), 221-227.
2. Babatunde. A. O. and Manyasa, E. 2002. Millets. In Pseudocereals and Less Common Cereals, Grain Properties and Utilization Potential, Eds : Belton, P.S. and Taylor, J.R.N. Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg, New York, pp 177-218.
3. Fransisco, A.de, Shepherd, A.D., Hoseney, R.C., and Varriano, M.E.. 1981. Decorticating pearl millet and grain sorghum in a laboratory abrasive mill., 160-174.
4. Fransisco, A.de, Shepherd, A.D., Hoseney, R.C., and Varriano, M.E.. 1982. Decorticating pearl millet and grain sorghum in a laboratory abrasive mill. Cereal Chemistry. 59 (1), 1-5.
5. Kotlyar, L.I., and Goikhenberg, B.I. 1973. Optimization of millet husking using small rubber rollers. Izvestiya Vysshikh Uchebnykh Zavedenii, Pishchevaya Tekhnologiya. 5, 117-121.
6. Lazaro, E.L., and Favier, J.F. 2000. Alkali debranning of sorghum and millet. Cereal Chemitry. 77 (6), 717-720.
7. Lorenz. K., Dilsaver, W. and Bates, L. Proso millets: Milling characteristics, proximate composition, nutritive value of flours. Cereal Chmeistry. 57 (1), 16-20.
8. Malleshi, N.G. and Hadimani N.A. 1993. Nutritional and technological characteristics of small millets and preparation of value added products from them. In: Advances in Small Millets (Riley, K.W.. Gupta, S.C., Seetharam. A., Mushonga, J.N. eds) pp 271-287. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd.. New Delhi.
9. Malleshi, N.G. and Desikachar, H.S.R. 1981. Studies on the suitability of roller flour mill, hammer mill and plate grinder for obtaining a refined Hour from malted ragi (Eleusine coracana). J. Food Science and Technology. 18(2), 37-39.
10. Malleshi, N.G. 2003. Decorticated finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and a process for preparing the decorticated finger millet. US patent no. Al; (US 2003/0185951 Al).
11. Malleshi, N.G. 2004. Decorticated finger millet (Eleusine coracana) and a process for its preparation. Indian patent no. WO 03/080248 Al.
12. Perten, H. 1977. Specific characteristics fo millet and sorghum milling. Tropical Products Institute Conference Papers. Pp 47-51.
13. Rao, M.V. 1989. The small millets: their importance, present status and outlook. In: Advances in small millets. (Riley, K.W., Gupta, S.C., Seetharam, A., Mushonga, J.N. eds) pp 271-287. Oxford and IBH Publishing Co. Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi.
14. Subramanian, S., Viswanathan, R. 2007. Bulk density and friction coefficients of selected minor millet grains and flours. J. Food Engineering. 81, 1 18-126.

We claim
i) Differential speed rubber roll dehulling machine is suitable for dehulling of proso millet, foxtail millet, barnyard millet, little millet and kodo millet. The hull is to be separated using blower.
ii) The dehulling of the millets at predetermined moisture content using differential speed rubber roll at the specified clearance between rolls results in removal of the hull neatly without breakage of cotyledons and damaging the bran layer.
iii) The dehulling of the millets using differential speed rubber roll dehulling machine and polishing with abrasive mill gives all components (hull, bran and cotyledon) separately and hence all the components can be utilized for food, feed and any other specific use.
iv) Superior quality/ purity of the product (viz. refined endosperm and refined flour) and superior quality/ purity of the byproduct (viz. hull and bran).
v) The loss of endosperm is reduced to a very low level (less than 2%) in comparison to the conventional process wherein the loss of endosperm is as high as 4-10%.
6. DATE AND SIGNATURE (to be given at the end of last page of specification)