Use of local materials in the preservation of Garcinia kola (bitter kola) seeds

Abstract

Storage of Bitter kola (Garcinia kola) was carried out using different local materials to evaluate the most appropriate storage material relative to the extension of its shelf life. The materials were kept moist by wetting them throughout the period of study (8 weeks). The local materials used were sandy soil, jute bag, clay pot and Plantain leaves. Three different parameters were used to assess the effectiveness of these local materials. The parameters were weight loss, colour change and shrinkage.Colour and shrinkage were evaluated visually. For weight loss, storage materials were significantly different (p<0.05). Sandy soil and jute bag were observed to reduce weight loss (27g and 28.3g) respectively than the other two (36.3g and 50g) for clay pot and plantain leaves respectively. Observation showed that seeds preserved in plantain leaves and jute bag maintained their initial brown colour after 8 weeks while those in sandy soil and clay pot were darker. None of the seeds preserved using sandy soil shrank, only two seeds from jute bag shrank but shrinkage was conspicuous on seeds from clay pot and plantain leaves. Generally, sandy soil and jute bags were regarded as the best local materials to preserve Garcinia kola seeds.

Keywords: Bittercola, jute bag, clay pot, sandy soil, storage, shrinkage