Effect of Moisture Content on Pitting and Milling Efficiency of Pigeon Pea Grain

Pitting is a premilling operation in which pigeon pea grain is passed through a dehulling machine quickly to crack the hull or partly dehull the grain. A study was conducted to investigate the effect of grain moisture content on pigeon pea hull during pitting. Pitting of the grain was done at 6%, 8%, 10%, 12%, and 14% moisture contents using dhal mill developed by Central Institute of Agricultural Engineering, Bhopal (India). Grains having a cracked hull or partly dehulled during pitting varied from 35.3% to 85.3% with maximum value at 10% moisture content and reduced with an increase in moisture content. Maximum finished product in the form of dehulled whole (gota) and dehulled splits (dhal) was also obtained at 10% moisture content. Pitted grains of pigeon pea were treated with 0.28% cottonseed oil to study the effect of moisture content and pitting on dehulling efficiency, which was maximum (86.7%) at 10% moisture content.