Oilseeds have been cultivated from antiquity with increasing demand in agricultural industries world trade. Many economies such as Malaysia depend largely on oilseed crops which are grown primarily for the edible oil production; and for additional meal fraction arising from the seed. The meal is rich in protein and used for animal feed. Recent developments in research have posited oilseeds as a viable source for the production of biodiesel. In the tropics, most of the oilseeds are underutilized; and interest in its mass production and utilization are lacking. Some other seed such as neem seeds, pawpaw seeds, Jatropha curcas L. seeds, etc. have not been put to use in tropical countries leading to subsistence production and their applications in other areas. The oilseed crops could be used either for human, animal or for industrial purposes. There is need to increase the volume of production of these oils in tropical countries through improved quality farming techniques that would encourage breeding in other to meet up with increasing demands. Notably, there are many conventional methods that have been used to increase oilseeds yields. However, the adoption of each technology improvement should be sustainable, while other unknown oilseeds should be discovered for increased utilization.
Two cocoyam varieties (Colocasia esculenta) known as taro grown in Cross-River State and Bendel were subjected to different processing conditions (boiling and drying) and the effect of boiling temperature, boiling time and drying temperatures were investigated. They were processed into flour using standard methods, packaged in low-density polyethylene bags and kept in the laboratory for analysis. The results obtained showed that crude fat, crude protein, ash, moisture, crude fibre and carbohydrate contents ranged from 0.42-0.92%, 6.03-9.01%, 2.13-3.90%, 5.20-12.07%, 0.43-0.77% and 73.32-81.73%, respectively. The anti-nutrients contents of the samples showed that oxalate ranged from 0.01-0.99 mg/g, alkaloids (0.12-0.73 mg/g), flavonoids (0.00-0.83 mg/g), phytate (0.01-1.90 mg/g), saponin (0.00-0.83 mg/g) and tannin (0.00-0.01 mg/g). The investigation revealed that there were significant (p<0.05) variations in the functional properties of the cocoyam samples with the water absorption capacity ranging from (1.56-3.01 mg/g), bulk density(0.58-0.82 mg/g), swelling index (1.54-2.91 mg/g), Oil absorption capacity (1.32-1.67 mg/g), while porosity ranged from 0.30-0.76 mg/g. There were also significant (p<0.05) variations in the thermal diffusivity of the samples with the samples of Cross River Cocoyam having higher thermal diffusivity compared to sample of Bendel Cocoyam. The higher thermal diffusivity observed in the cross river cocoyam could be due to the lower moisture content of the samples. The result of the pasting properties showed that the peak viscosity, peak time, final viscosity, breakdown and set back viscosities ranged from 10.88-15.81 N/m2, 7.87-20.87 mins, 8.00-9.97 N/m2, 15.10-17.90 N/m2, 6.0-7.5 N/m2 and 2.3-3.8 N/m2. The research discovered that sample with less pasting temperatures and high peak viscosity had better thickening effect as seen in sample of Cross River Cocoyam. The moisture sorption isotherms had sigmoid-shaped profiles for all of the three temperatures. The hysteresis effect at the three temperatures was distinctly expressed. The increasing temperatures resulted in less hysteresis effect on taro flour which meant the adsorption and desorption curves were closer.
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