Effect of Processing on Microbial Load, Physicochemical Properties and Nutritional Composition of Plukenetia conophora (Africa Walnut)

Abstract

This research was carried out to determine the effect(s) of different processing methods on the nutritional composition of Plukenetia conophora (Africa walnut) seeds. The dried walnut seeds were sorted, cleaned, cracked and dehulled by abrasion to get the cotyledons. The raw sample and processed (boiled and fermented) seeds were analyzed for microbial load, physicochemical properties (pH, total titratable acidity and moisture contents), proximate composition, vitamin contents and antioxidant level. The boiled sample had the least microbial load (7.55 Cfu/ml) followed by the raw sample 8.50 (Cfu/ml). There was a progressive increase in the microbial load with an increase in fermentation time from 8.18 Cfu/ml to 8.40 Cfu/g in FW24 and FW120, respectively. The raw sample had least pH and moisture content of 5.78 and 9.50%, respectively. Boiling and increase in fermentation time led to significant increase in pH and moisture content of the samples.

Biochemical and Microbiological Evaluation of the Effect of Processing on Cucumeropsis mannii Seed

“…As a general observation on the media used in this research, nutrient agar (NA) allows the growth of more microorganisms than potato dextrose agar (PDA) which implies that under the same condition NA may be preferred over PDA for the growth of microorganism. This is in accordance with the work of Ileola et al [16].…”