As we enter the 3rd millennium, with improved life expectancy, and high media coverage of health care issues, people are becoming more aware of and interested in the potential benefits of nutritional support for disease control or prevention. The review aimed to gather published information regarding nutrition and health benefits associated with the use of chia seeds for human health. Researchers have reported chia seeds to have high nutritional content in the form of protein (15-25%), dietary fibre (18-35%), fat (15-35%) and ash content (4-6%). Apart from their rich nutritional content, chia seeds can improve the nutritional content of various food products when they are blended or mixed. This article reviews the nutritional content, bioactive compounds, and nutraceutical functionality of chia seeds and their use in the development of functional foods. Also highlights functional properties of chia seeds, usage in the food industry and fortification of food with chia seeds. The results showed the potential use of chia seeds with blending with other food to produce more nutrient dense food products that can be regarded as a functional food.

The study established the proximate composition, pasting, and functional properties of cassava flour (CF) blended with chia seeds flour (CSF). Composite flour was prepared by blending CF with CSF in the ratios of 95:05, 90:10, 85:15, 80:20, and 75:25 with CF and CSF used as controls, respectively. The effect of blending significantly (p < 0.05) increased protein, fat, fibre, and ash contents as CSF increased. On other hand, moisture and carbohydrate contents decreased significantly. Pasting properties of composite flour blends decreased significantly (p < 0.05) as the incorporation of CSF increased and a noticeable change was observed for composite flour (75:25) except for peak time and pasting temperature. Functional properties of water absorption capacity (WAC) of CSF were significantly different with CF and composite flour blends. Oil absorption capacity (OAC) of CF and CSF were significantly different, while the composite flour blends had varied OAC due to the inclusion of the different amounts of CSF. The swelling capacity (SC) of CF and CSF were not significantly different, but composite flour blends were significantly different from both CSF and CF. The least gelation concentration (LGC) and bulk density (BD) increased significantly as chia seeds increased. Increased concentration of chia CSF in the composite flour blends showed to alter the functional properties. This study recommends composite flour 75:25 for processing semiliquid products like porridge due to reduced pasting properties values that may be associated with increased energy density compared to CF.

No abstract

The study analysed the fatty and amino acid compositions of chia seeds and the physicochemical characterisation of chia seeds oil. The quantification of amino and fatty acids was done using highperformance liquid chromatography (HPLC) and gas chromatography equipped with a flame ionisation detector (GC-FID). The amino acids from chia seeds were leucine, valine, phenylalanine, lysine, isoleucine, threonine, histidine, and methionine with 1.63, 1.37, 1.34, 1.14, 0.98, 0.98, 0.88 and 0.81 g/100 g, respectively. Saturated and unsaturated fatty acids were 3.95 and 30.48%, respectively. Meanwhile, the mean ratio of Omega 6/Omega 3 fatty acids was 0.333. The established physicochemical characteristics of CSO were acid value 2.63 mg KOH/g, peroxide value 6.23 meq active oxygen/kg, iodine value 200.721 g I 2 /100 g, saponification value 193.345 mg KOH/g, refractive index 1.454 at 40°C relative density 0.8824 g/cm 3 at 20°C and specific gravity 0.882 at 40°C. The fatty acid and amino acid profiling of chia seeds revealed the presence of an appreciable amount of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and essential amino acids. The physicochemical characteristics of CSO constitute a drying oil category that requires timely usage and proper storage condition to reduce rancidity from air or light exposure.