Biochemical and Nutritional Parameters from Flour of Ackee Blighia sapida (Sapindaceae) Seeds

Abstract

The limited information on the biochemical and nutritional benefits of edible ackee (Blighia sapida) seeds makes it underutilized in West Africa. This study was to investigate the nutrient content and antinutritional factors using standard analytical methods. The results revealed that ackee (B. sapida) seeds contain some percentage flavonoid (0.134.± 0.08 g/100 g), carotenoid (0.005 ± 0.01 g/100 g), polyphenol (0.851 ± 0.40 g/100 g), total sugar (67.98 ± 0.27 g/100 g), reducing sugar (86.93 ± 0.73 g/100 g), vitamin C (0.019 ± 0.49 g/100 g), moisture contents (6.22 ± 0.04 g/100 g), crude fibre (13.84 ± 0.08 g/100 g), ash (2.68 ± 0.09 g/100 g), crude protein (7.83 ± 0.04 g/100 g) and carbohydrate (75.77 ± 0.08 g/100 g). The antinutritional composition which include alkaloids, oxalate, phytate and tannin were 0.23 ± 0.02, 391.87 ± 0.07, 415.09 ± 0.70 and 795.00 ± 0.37 mg/100 g respectively. These results indicated that ackee seeds are good source of nutritional compounds. However, they had considerable antinutritional factors. Thus, it would be better to treat them by thermal processing methods before using them for application in food systems to maintain food quality.