Advances in Research

Background: The major contribution of some plants’ seeds or beans to the diet of Nigerians is based on their nutritional qualities. African breadfruit (Treculia africana) seed is said to be rich in nutrients and healthy when properly processed before consumption.

Aim: This study evaluated the effects of roasting as a pre-processing technique on the functional properties of African breadfruit (Treculia africana) seeds in order to establish the optimum roasting temperature for processing the seeds.

Materials and Methods: The seedy variety of African breadfruit fruit was obtained from Omuanwa, Ikwerre Local Government Area, Rivers State. Response Surface Methodology (RSM) based on 3-level full factorial of the Random sample design was selected to optimize the effect of roasting on the functional properties of the seeds which resulted in nine experimental runs after the screening. The functional properties {Bulk Density (BD), Water Absorption Capacity (WAC), Oil Absorption Capacity (OAC), Swelling Power (SP), Gelation Capacity (GC) and Emulsification Capacity (EC)} were determined in the seed flours obtained from roasted seeds.  D-Optimal of Response Surface Methodology was used to investigate the main effect of the roasting. Data collected were subjected to analysis of variance (ANOVA) using SSPS version 20.0 and SAS 2.0 package.

Results: Functional properties of roasted samples were: BD (0.0175-0.764) g/ml, WAC (175-200.5) %, OAC (81.0-109) %, SP (2.25-2.33) %, GC (15.0-25.0) % and EC (63.16-75.29) %.  The desirability index is 50%. 

Conclusion: Conclusively, roasting temperature of 121⁰C for 40mins, was adequate to obtain the expected functional properties from T. africana seeds.