Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus) is an economically important vegetable crop grown in tropical and sub-tropical parts of the world. This paper was aimed to review nutritional quality and potential health benefits of edible parts of Okra. Okra is a multipurpose crop due to its various uses of the fresh leaves, buds, flowers, pods, stems and seeds. Okra immature fruits, which are consumed as vegetables, can be used in salads, soups and stews, fresh or dried, fried or boiled. It offers mucilaginous consistency after cooking. Often the extract obtained from the fruit is added to different recipes like stews and sauces to increase the consistency. Okra mucilage has medicinal applications when used as a plasma replacement or blood volume expander. The mucilage of okra binds cholesterol and bile acid carrying toxins dumped into it by the liver. Okra seeds are a potential source of oil, with concentrations varying from 20% to 40%, which consists of linoleic acid up to 47.4%. Okra seed oil is also a rich source of linoleic acid, a polyunsaturated fatty acid essential for human nutrition. Okra has been called "a perfect villager's vegetable" because of its robust nature, dietary fiber, and distinct seed protein balance of both lysine and tryptophan amino acids. The amino acid composition of okra seed protein is comparable to that of soybean and the protein efficiency ratio is higher than that of soybean and the amino acid pattern of the protein renders it an adequate supplement to legume or cereal based diets. Okra seed is known to be rich in high quality protein especially with regards to its content of essential amino acids relative to other plant protein sources. Okra is a powerhouse of valuable nutrients, nearly half of which is soluble fibre in the form of gums and pectins which help to lower serum cholesterol, reducing the risk of heart diseases. The other fraction of Okra is insoluble fibre, which helps to keep the intestinal tract healthy. Okra is also abundant with several carbohydrates, minerals and vitamins, which plays a vital role in human diet and health. Okra is rich in phenolic compounds with important biological properties like quartering and flavonol derivatives, catechin oligomers and hydroxycinnamic derivatives. Okra is also known for being high in antioxidants activity. Okra has several potential health beneficial effects on some of the important human diseases like cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, digestive diseases and some cancers. Overall, Okra is an important vegetable crop with a diverse array of nutritional quality and potential health benefits.

The promotion and consumption of indigenous vegetables could help to mitigate food insecurity and alleviate malnutrition in developing countries. Nutrient and antinutrient compositions of eight accessions of Okra Pods were investigated. Molar ratios and mineral bioavailability of Okra pod accessions were also calculated and compared to the critical values to predict the implications for mineral bioavailability. Proximate and mineral composition of Okra pod accessions were determined using standard methods of Association of Official Analytical Chemists. The result of the study revealed that the proximate composition (g/100 g) in dry weight basis was significantly (P < 0.05) varied and ranged: moisture/dry matter 9.69–13.33, crude protein 10.25–26.16, crude fat 0.56–2.49, crude fiber 11.97–29.93, crude ash 5.37–11.30, utilizable carbohydrate 36.66–50.97, and gross energy 197.26–245.55 kcal/100 g. The mineral concentrations (mg/100 g) were also significantly (P < 0.05) varied and ranged: calcium (111.11–311.95), Iron (18.30–36.68), potassium (122.59–318.20), zinc (3.83–6.31), phosphorus (25.62–59.72), and sodium (3.33–8.31) on dry weight bases. The Okra Pods of “OPA#6” accession contained significantly higher amounts of crude protein, total ash, crude fat, calcium, iron, and zinc than all other accessions evaluated in this study. The results of antinutrients analysis showed that, except phytate, tannin, and oxalate contents of all the accessions were significantly (P < 0.05) varied. The range of phytate, tannin, and oxalate contents (mg/100 g) for Okra pod accessions studied were as follows: 0.83–0.87, 4.93–9.90, and 0.04–0.53, respectively. The calculated molar ratios of phytate: calcium, phytate: iron, phytate: zinc, oxalate: calcium and [Phytate][Calcium]/[Zinc] were below the critical value and this indicate that the bioavailability of calcium, iron, and zinc in these accessions could be high. The results of the study revealed that Okra pod contain appreciable amount of vital nutrients like protein, fiber, calcium, iron, and zinc and low in antinutrient contents with high mineral bioavailability. Therefore, increase in the production and consumption of these nutrient‐rich indigenous Okra pods will help to supplement/formulate the diets and alleviate the problems associated with malnutrition in the country.

Anti-nutritional factors are compounds which reduce the nutrient utilization and/or food intake of plants or plant products used as human foods and they play a vital role in determining the use of plants for humans. This paper is aimed to review the updated scientific information regarding the potential health benefits and adverse effects associated with major antinutritional factors found in plant foods. Antinutrients in plant foods are responsible for deleterious effects related to the absorption of nutrients and micronutrients. However, some antinutrients may exert beneficial health effects at low concentrations. For example, phytic acid, lectins, tannins, saponins, amylase inhibitors and protease inhibitors have been shown to reduce the availability of nutrients and cause growth inhibition. However, when used at low levels, phytate, lectins, tannins, amylase inhibitors and saponins have also been shown to reduce the blood glucose and insulin responses to starchy foods and/or the plasma cholesterol and triglycerides. In addition, phytates, tannins, saponins, protease inhibitors, goetrogens and oxalates have been related to reduce cancer risks. This implies that anti-nutrients might not always harmful even though lack of nutritive value. Despite of this, the balance between beneficial and hazardous effects of plant bioactives and anti-nutrients rely on their concentration, chemical structure, time of exposure and interaction with other dietary components. Due to this, they can be considered as anti-nutritional factors with negative effects or non-nutritive compounds with positive effects on health.

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The effect of wheat flour refined milling on nutritional and antioxidant quality of hard and soft grown in Ethiopia was evaluated. Bread was prepared with the supplementation of the white wheat flour with different levels (0%, 10%, 20%, and 25%) of wheat bran. Whole (100% extraction) and white wheat (68% extraction) flours were analyzed for proximates, minerals, and antioxidants. Results indicated that at a low extraction rate (68%), the protein, fat, fiber, ash, iron, zinc, phosphorous, and antioxidant contents of the samples significantly (P < 0.05) decreased by milling. The TPC (total phenolic content) of the white wheat flours, which ranged from 3.34 to 3.49 mg GAE (gallic acid equivalent)/g, was significantly (P < 0.005) lower than those of the whole wheat flours, whose TPC ranged from 7.66 to 8.20 GAE/g). At 50 mg/mL, the DPPH (2‐diphenyl‐1‐picrylhydrazyl) scavenging effect of the wheat extracts decreased in the order of soft whole, hard whole, soft white, and hard white wheat flour, which was 90.39, 89.89, 75.80, and 57.57%, respectively. Moreover, the proximate and mineral contents of the bran‐supplemented breads increased significantly (P < 0.05) with the bran level of the bread, and the highest values (protein, 12.0 g/100 g; fat, 2.6 g/100 g; fiber, 2.5 g/100 g; ash, 3.3 g/100 g; iron, 4.8 mg/100 g and zinc, 2.33 mg/100 g) were found in 25% bran supplemented bread. The sensory evaluation of bread showed that all the supplementation levels had a mean score above 4 for all preferences on a 7‐ point hedonic scale. The results indicated that refined milling at 68% extraction significantly reduces the nutritional and antioxidant activity of the wheat flours. Bread of good nutritional and sensory qualities can be produced from 10% and 20% bran supplementations.

Functional and antioxidant properties of mucilage extracted from the pods of eight okra accessions grown in Benishangul‐Gumuz region, Western Ethiopia, were evaluated. This study had shown that the mucilage contents of the pods of eight okra accessions ranged from 1.25 to 3.45 g/100 g. Functional properties of the mucilage of okra pods varied significantly (p < .05) and had respective ranges of bulk density of 0.58–0.64 g/ml; water absorption capacity of 2.45–4.60 ml/g; oil absorption capacity of 0.02–3.64 ml/g; emulsifying capacity of 42.22%–74.45%; emulsion stability of 42.22%–74.45%; foaming capacity of 50.51%–62.50%, and foam stability of 36.04%–54.35%. Total phenolic and flavonoid contents of the mucilage of the pods of okra accessions ranged from 4.66 to 49.93 mg GAE/g and 8.18–18.72 mg CE/g, respectively. The effective concentration (EC 50) values (mg/ml) of mucilage of okra pods varied from 3.15 to 6.60 and 1.10 to 1.85 for DPPH scavenging and metal‐chelating activity, respectively. The study revealed that the mucilage of the pods of okra accessions was found to exhibit good functional properties and can offer a great potential in various food systems. Particularly, mucilage of the pods from OPA#5 and OPA#7 had desirable water and oil absorption capacities, whereas the mucilage of accession OPA#1 and OPA#6 had high emulsifying and foaming properties. The results also demonstrated that okra pod mucilage had potential sources of natural antioxidant.

This study was aimed to evaluate nutritional and antinutritional contents of complementary foods from locally available and affordable raw materials (maize, pea, and anchote) grown in Western Ethiopia. The six formulated complementary diets analyzed for their proximate, mineral, and antinutritional continents were compared with Codex standards. The mineral ratios and molar ratios of the formulated diets were also evaluated and compared with each standard values. Six formulations were generated by d-optimal mixture design. The formulated ingredient ranges 45%-61% maize, 23%-31% pea, and 14%-28% anchote. Design-Expert ® 6 (Stat-Ease) was used to constrain the three components. The formulated diets ranged from 14.92% to 20.99%, 5.95% to 9.94%, 2.75% to 3.41%, and 59.10% to 66.22% of protein, fat, fiber, and utilizable carbohydrate, respectively. Mineral contents (mg/100 g) of the formulated diet ranged from 225.45 to 261.32, 11.48 to 12.61, 2.73 to 3.00, 357.92 to 391.13, 298.55 to 332.63, 252.00 to 278.01, and 44.26 to 51.56 for calcium, iron, zinc, phosphorous, potassium, sodium and magnesium, respectively. The proximate and mineral contents of the formulated diet 5 meet the Codex standards, except the fat contents of the complementary food standards. The molar ratios of the formulated diets in this study were below standard reference and which show the high mineral bioavailability in all the formulated diets. The results of the study revealed that the formulated diets contain very low antinutritional factors and high mineral bioavailability. The paper's findings show that the complementary food formulated from maize, pea, and anchote flours particularly diet 5 may be suitable to alleviate protein energy malnutrition and it can be used as a substitute for the expensive commercial complementary food. K E Y W O R D S anchote, antinutritional, complementary foods, maize, nutritional, pea | 2157 GEMEDE

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