Effect of temperature and moisture content on the nutritional properties of African breadfruit (Treculia africana) seed

Abstract

African breadfruit seeds (Treculia africana) are underutilised crops at risk of extinction, found widely in the tropics and have been reported to contain all the essential nutrients for novelty in food and industrial uses. The seeds contain an array of nutrients; 12-23% crude protein, 11- 20% crude fat, 2.3% ash, 1.6% fibre and 50 - 73% carbohydrate with other essential vitamins and minerals. This research is aimed at evaluating the effect of temperature and moisture content (MC) on the nutritional properties of dehulled breadfruit seed at varied temperatures and MC to determine adequate techniques in processing breadfruit seed for best nutritional yield and further processing without adverse effect on its nutritional characteristics. A conventional oven dryer was used to dry the samples at varied temperatures and MC of 40, 50, 60 and 70°C and 15, 12, 9 and 6%, respectively. Proximate analysis was done on the dried and blended breadfruit seed samples to analyse the processing effect on the nutritional composition. Results from this study showed that temperature and MC had a significant (P<0.05) effect on the nutritional component of breadfruit seed as carbohydrate content ranged between 42.81 to 54.39%, whereas protein and fat content ranged between 11.46 to 16.92% and 13 to 27%, respectively. It was observed that a drying temperature of 60°C at 9% MC gave the highest carbohydrate and protein content compared to other temperature variations while a drying temperature of 50°C at an MC of 15% gave the highest fat content. Therefore, when processing breadfruit seed for maximum yield in carbohydrate and protein content, the best processing temperature and MC is 60°C and 9% whereas, for maximum fat yield, the best drying temperature is 50°C at an MC of 15%. Knowledge from the study can be applied to targeted drying for maximum yield in specific nutritional components of agricultural food produce.