Nutritional Composition of the Flour of African Breadfruit (Treculia africana) Seeds Testa

Abstract

Chemical composition of the African breadfruit (Treculia africana) seeds testa was determined. The flour contained of 1.56 crude fat, 2.45 crude protein, 77.1 carbohydrates, 4.71 ash and 9.54 g/100g crude fibre on dry weight basis. Energy content from carbohydrates was the highest with the value 555 kJ/100g (89.7%) and the least being 17.6 kJ/100g (2.84%) from crude protein. The sample was high in potassium (k) and moderate in other major minerals but very low in heavy metals lead and cadmium (< 0.001 mg/100g each) with an appreciable level of phosphorus (75.9 mg/100g) while mineral ratios (Ca/Mg, Na/K and Ca/P) ranged between 0.05 – 0.615. Sample contained high value of total essential amino acids (41.0 g/100g) (52.3%), which included high levels of aspartic and glutamic acids. Cystine was the limiting amino acid based on the whole hen’s egg amino acid scoring pattern whilst methionine + cystine were the limiting amino acids with reference to the FAO/WHO/UNU pre- school children and provisional amino acid scoring patterns. Palmitic acid was the most abundant saturated fatty acids while linoleic and oleic acids were the most abundant unsaturated fatty acids. Highest value of energy contribution came from SFA (20.5 kJ/100g). The PUFA/SFA ratio indicated high level of essential FAs. Essential PUFA standard index (EPSI) (1.17), MUFA/SFA (0.564), LA/ALA (69.0), n-6/n-3 (103) and EPA/DHA (1.00) were observed. These values showed that quality of PUFA was high. The most prominent phospholipid and phytosterol were phosphatidylcholine (19.9 mg/100g) and campesterol (9.60mg/100g) and insignificant level of cholesterol (3.05x 10-6 mg/100g).