Effect of Processing on Nutritional Composition of African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) and Mesquite Bean (Prosopis africana) Seeds

Abstract: The African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa) and mesquite bean (Prosopis africana) are both perennial tree legumes which belong to the family Leguminoseae. A comparative study was conducted on them to determine the effect of fermenting on the nutritional composition of their seeds. For this purpose, proximate, mineral and amino acid compositions were determined using standard analytical techniques. The result showed that fermented sample of Parkia biglobosa seeds had the highest content of crude protein (25.16%) and crude fat (12.27%) while the raw sample of Prosopis africana had the highest values of crude fibre (11.35%). Potassium was the most abundant mineral in all the samples with fermented P. biglobosa recording the highest value of 51.00 mg/100g. Generally, raw and fermented samples of P. biglobosa and P. africana seed flours were found to be a good source of essential minerals, and harmful heavy metals such as lead and cadmium were below the detection limit of atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The amino acid profile revealed that fermenting enhanced total amino acid (TAA), total essential amino acid (TEAA), essential alphatic amino acid (EAAA), essential aromatic amino acid (EArAA) and total sulphur amino acids (TSAA). The limiting amino acids (LAA) for raw and fermented samples of P. biglobosa were Met + Cys (TSAA) and Thr, respectively while that of P. africana was TSAA for the raw and fermented samples. Sufficient proportions of the essential amino acids were retained after fermenting of Parkia biglobosa and Prosopis africana seeds to meet FAO dietary requirement.