Chemical Composition, Anti-Nutritional Factors and Pasting Properties of Cassava-African Yam Bean Flour Blends for Noodle Preparation

Abstract

Noodle consumption has been increasing in Nigeria as a result of rapid urbanization, increase in population growth, and desire for convenience food. Noodles are produced from wheat our which is not grown in Nigeria. In order to reduce wheat imports and improve utilization of local crops, various options have been developed to replace wheat flour partially or wholly in noodle production. This study was aimed at optimizing the level of major ingredients to obtain the best flour blend for noodle preparation with optimum nutritional quality. Pro-vitamin A cassava roots (Manihot esculenta Crantz) and African yam bean seeds (AYB) (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) were processed into ours. The ranges of these flours, based on preliminary findings, were computed into a central composite design of Response Surface Methodology (RSM) to obtain 13 flour blends with five central points. The chemical compositions, anti-nutritional factors, and pasting properties of these flour blends were analyzed and measured. By maximizing total β-carotene, protein content, and minimizing fat content, the predicted model indicated the optimum blend of 70.52% cassava flour to 29.48% AYB flour. The best our blend sample of 69.23% cassava our to 30.77% AYB flour gave the actual value of total β-carotene 6.76 μg/g, with proximate analysis composition of protein 6.17%, fat 0.82%, moisture 8.95%, ash 1.77%, crude fiber 5.09%, and carbohydrate 82.30%. The anti-nutritional factors of the best blend were 8.21 mg HCNeqv/kg, 1.69 mg phytate/g and 0.37 mg tannin/g.

Nutritional and Functional Properties of Wheat-Defatted Peanut-Orange Peel Composite Flour

“…Also this was expected as DPF contain a great concentration of protein [35] which is usually associated with high water absorption. This result agree with those of [36] who reported an increase in the moisture content with increase in African yam bean flour on a cassava-African yam bean composite flour. The relatively low moisture content is an indication of storage stability and could produce a more shelf stable product.…”

“…The carbohydrate content of the flours decreased significantly (p<0.05) from 85.37% in sample A (control) to 64.58% in sample E. The decrease is due to the increase in other proximate components since carbohydrate is obtained by difference. This agrees with [17,36,40] who reported that increase in other proximate component (protein, ash fibre, moisture) often result to decreased in carbohydrates content of food. The lower carbohydrate content of flour has several health benefits, as it will aid digestion in the colon and reduce constipation often associated with products from refined grain flours.…”

“…The low fat levels are beneficial as it ensures longer shelf life for the products [39] because all fats and fat containing foods contain some unsaturated fatty acids and hence are potentially susceptible to oxidative rancidity. These results are higher than those observed by Ajibola and Olapade [36] of 0.5%-1.4% but are similar to results by Iwe et al [40].…”

“…Dietary fibre intake has also been linked with lower risk of coronary heart diseases, stroke, hypertension, diabetes, lowering blood pressure as well as cholesterol levels in the serum [43]. These results are lower than those reported by Ajibola and Olapade [36] and Alexander [40] who incorporated orange-fleshed sweet potato into wheat flour cookie production. These results however are also higher than those reported by Meka et al [37] who reported 1.10 to 1.58% in a yellow maize-soybean-jackfruit composite flour.…”

Classification of African Native Plant Foods Based on Their Processing Levels

“…The seeds are usually boiled with salt, pepper, and palm oil and consumed as a bean soup. Recently, other products developed from AYB seed include a yoghurt-like product (77), biscuits (78), breakfast cereal (76,79), noodles (80), and cassava enriched fufu (81).…”