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Chemical evaluation of winged beans (Psophocarpus Tetragonolobus), Pitanga cherries (Eugenia uniflora) and orchid fruit (Orchid fruit myristica)
Abstract
and pitanga cherries had 9.77%. Winged bean and orchid fruit had similar (P > 0.05) water content, which is significantly different from pitanga cherries. Iron, cadmium, lead and manganese were absent in all the samples. Copper and calcium were absent in pitanga cherries. Pitanga cherries had the highest composition (g/100g) of sugar, winged beans ranked next, while orchid fruit had low sugar content. The peroxide values of the oil of the various samples ranged between 11.41 and 12.91 meq/kg, while the saponification values ranged between 182.58 and 191.05 mgKOH/g. The unsaponifiable matter was very low in pitanga cherries compared with winged beans and orchid fruit. The acid value ranged
between 0.71 and 2.82 mg/KOH/g while iodine value ranged between 91.15 and 144.57. The refractive index ranged between 1.465 and 1.474 in all the samples. Based on the results of this study, winged beans could be useful in the formulation of infant formula, pitanga cherries in the production of fruit jam and as a flavour in food drinks, because of its sugar contents, while orchid fruit—which has very high oil content—could be used as a spice.