Evaluation of the Proximate and Functional Properties of Flours from Brown Variety of African Yam Bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) Seeds

Abstract

Aim: To create variety of flours through food product development by checking the proximate and functional properties of flours from brown variety of African yam bean (Sphenostylis stenocarpa) seeds. Study Design: This study was made to fit into a one way Analysis of Variance. Place and Duration of Study: The research was carried out at the Department of Food Science and Technology laboratory, Federal University of Technology, Owerri, Nigeria, between July 2017 and September 2018. Methodology: Brown coloured variety of African yam bean seeds were sorted, soaked, dehulled and milled to obtain full fat flour. The full fat flour was further processed to obtain defatted flour, protein isolate and protein concentrate. The different flours were analysed to determine their proximate and functional properties. Results: From the results of the proximate composition, it showed that the protein isolate value 89.1±0.23% was higher than the protein composition of the full fat, defatted and protein concentrates which has 21.8±0.16%, 23.1±0.06% and 61.7±0.21% composition respectively. There were no significant difference (p<0.05) between the protein concentrate, protein isolate, full fat flour and defatted flour. The functional properties revealed high bulk density of (0.50± 0.01) for the defatted flour more than the full fat flour (0.35± 0.10) while the emulsion capacity of the protein concentrate and protein isolate flour was found to be (30.7±0.19%) and (35.3± 0.16%) respectively. Conclusion: The proximate and functional results obtained indicate that the starches from African yam bean will have useful technological properties for many applications both in food industries and in the production industries such as in paper and textile industries. It can also be said that African yam bean represents a source of alternative protein supplement and its protein isolates possess certain characteristics that will aid in protein enrichment for some food products.