Carob Kibble: A Bioactive‐Rich Food Ingredient

Abstract

Carob (Ceratonia siliqua L.) is well known for its valuable locust bean gum obtained from the carob seeds. Separation of seeds from the pod leaves behind the carob kibble which is a good source of dietary fiber, sugars, and a range of bioactive compounds such as polyphenols and pinitol. Bioactive compounds present in carob kibble have been found to be beneficial in the control of many health problems such as diabetes, heart diseases, and colon cancer due to their antidiabetic, antioxidant, and anti-inflammatory activities. Carob kibble has substantial potential to be used as a food ingredient. This article focuses on the composition, health benefits, and food applications of carob kibble.

Influence of Roasting on Sensory, Antioxidant, Aromas, and Physicochemical Properties of Carob Pod Powder (Ceratonia siliquaL.)

“…Carob was spread in recent times to other Mediterraneanlike regions such as California, Arizona, Mexico, Chile, and Argentina by Spaniards, to parts of Australia by Mediterranean emigrants and to South Africa and India [9,10]. Carob has been used for over 4000 years as feed and food, especially in times of food shortage, mainly due to its sugary pulp [11][12][13].…”

“…In Algeria, the most carob trees are wild and grow in north and northwest of the country. The annual production of 2 Journal of Food Quality carob attains 3000 tons per year [10]. Local farmers manually do the harvesting of the whole fruits at the end of the summer from August to October.…”

“…Locust bean gum is widely used in the food industry as thickening and stabilizing agent in food preparations because of its ability to form viscous solution at relatively low concentration. It is also used in the cosmetic, pharmaceutical, textile, paper, petroleum, paint, oil drilling, and construction industries [10,13,27,28]. Carob germ flour is used as dietetic human food or as a potential ingredient in cereal-derived foods for celiac people [29].…”

“…Carob germ flour is used as dietetic human food or as a potential ingredient in cereal-derived foods for celiac people [29]. Carob kibbles can be used raw, usually for animal feeding, or roasted, in food industry [10,11,14]. They are also used to extract sugars for making syrup or bioethanol [17,[30][31][32].…”

Ethnopharmacological basis for antispasmodic, antidiarrheal and antiemetic activities of Ceratonia siliqua pods

“…Pods are the good source of carbohydrate, dietary fibre, fat and protein. It also contains polyphenols, gallic acid, proanthocyanin, gallo-tannins, catechin, epicatechin gallate, quercetin glycosides, flavonoids, fructose, glucose and sucrose (Nasar-Abbas et al, 2016). It is a rich source of amino acids such as aspartic acid, alanine, glutamic acid and valine as well as minerals, potassium and calcium (Ayaz et al, 2007).…”