Abstract
Cassava roots, millet and cowpea leaves have short storage life thus the need for simple post-harvest handling and storage protocol to ensure prolonged availability to fully contribute toward food and nutrition security, a major challenge within Sub-Saharan Africa. The current study sought to investigate the effect of pre-treatment and processing on cyanide safety and nutrition composition of cassava roots, millet and cowpea leaves flours. The study used three popular cassava varieties grown along the Kenyan coast, cowpea leaves (M66) grown as vegetable and pearl millet. The study used analytical techniques as guided by AOAC standard methods, to determine the nutritional composition of the individual crops while subjecting them to pre-treatment processes (blanching, peeling, washing, drying, and fermentation) and optimizing for maximum nutrient composition. The cyanide content ranged 7.8–9.5, 3.4–5.0, and 2.2–2.8 ppb for raw, untreated, and fermented cassava flours, respectively. The carbohydrates content was in the range of 35–37, 81.73–83.49, and 70.28–71.20% for raw cowpea leaves, cassava roots, and millet, respectively; the carbohydrate content for untreated flours was in the range of 35.68–35.19, 66.07–83.49, and 66.07–68.89% for cowpea leaves, cassava roots, and millet, respectively; the carbohydrate content for the fermented flours was in the range of 29.06–28.01, 79.68–84.36, and 69.08–70.12% for cowpea leaves, cassava roots, and millet, respectively. The protein content was in the range of 25.69–26.01, 1.2–18, and 11.1–13.3% for untreated cowpea, cassava, and millet flours, respectively; fermented flours protein content was in the range of 25.7–29.3, 1.3–2.2, and 8.5–11.1% cowpea, cassava, and millet flours, respectively. Iron and zinc contents were in the range of 4.31–9.04, 1.0–1.3; 7.98–7.89, 1.21–1.25; 6.58–8.23, 0.99–1.22 (mg/100 g dwb) for raw, untreated, and fermented cowpea flours, respectively. Pre-treatment had significant effects (P ≤ 0.05) on cyanide content and nutritional composition of each of the flours. Farmers should be trained to utilize such simple processing techniques.
Highlights
Cassava roots are the third most utilized source of starch after maize and rice (Wanapat and Kang, 2015)
The flours were subjected to fermentation process and after fermentation Tajirika had significantly higher (P < 0.05) amounts (2.8 ppb) of cyanide compared to Kaleso (2.2 ppb) and Kibandameno (2.3 ppb)
Peeling, drying and fermentation reduced the cyanide content in cassava flours by more than 70% (Figure 1)
Summary
Cassava roots are the third most utilized source of starch after maize and rice (Wanapat and Kang, 2015). Following the trending global drive for promotion of growth and utilization of indigenous crops as a means of dietary diversification and ensuring food security amongst the low income communities especially in the developing and third world countries (IITA, 2016), the growth and utilization of cassava is currently promoted with the aim of ensuring sufficient supply of carbohydrates and increased living standards of the farmers (Abong et al, 2016). The promotion of the crop is hindered, especially among consumers who fear the high levels of cyanogenic glucosides associated with the roots (Olapade et al, 2014). The present study sought to device simple and efficient processing techniques to reduce the levels of cyanogenic glucosides
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