Eight commonly grown Indian hulled barley cultivars were studied for their dehusking, pearling, physicochemical, p-glucan, pasting and thermal behavior. Milling of the hulled barley at 14% moisture significantly lowered the dehusking and pearling time as compared to milling at 10% moisture content. The extraction rate ranged from 55.05% to 62.35% and significantly (p < 0.05) differed among the cultivars. Particle size distribution of flours was significantly different among the cultivars with flour from RD-2552 and RD-2035 cultivars having the most even particle size distribution. The colour difference (Delta E) was not significantly different among cultivars. The extractable p-glucan content varied from 1.93% to 3.81% among the cultivars; and was highest in PL-172. The final pasting viscosity was significantly different among cultivars while the pasting temperature did not vary significantly. The enthalpy (AH) of gelatinization of barley flour varied from 4.45 to 7.08 J/g and gelatinization temperature (T(p)) varied from 64.23 to 66.26 degrees C. (C) 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.