Nutritional Assessment of Fermented and Roasted <i>Tamarindus indica</i> Seeds from Lapai, Nigeria

Abstract

This work studied the proximate, mineral and phytochemical content of fermented and roasted Tamarind (Tamarindus indica) seed nuts, using standard analytical methods. The seeds were divided into two; one portion was roasted at temperature 85 - 100 oC for 15 mins while the second portion was fermented for 48 hours in the presence of yeast. The proximate analysis of the roasted and fermented samples revealed the values of moisture, ash, crude lipid, Crude protein, crude fibre, carbohydrate and calorific values of the fermented sample were 10.70±0.21 %, 3.06±0.71 %, 2.30±0.19 %, 19.25±0.16 %, 5.75±0.33 %, 58.94±0.23% and 301.29±0.31kcal/100g while values for the roasted sample were 2.00±0.82 %, 3.34±0.53 %, 7.60±0.43 %, 23.63±0.11 %, 5.22±0.74 %, 58.21±0.17 % and 329.08±0.92 kcal/100g respectively. Mineral elements present were K (336.75±0.31 mg/100g), Mg (166.90±0.37 mg/100g), P (106.42±0.65 mg/100g), Na (186.52±0.09 mg/100g) and Ca (10.33±0.15 mg/100g) for the fermented sample and values obtained for K, Mg, P, Na and Ca in roasted sample were 784.95±0.43, 187.65±0.17, 122.38±0.29, 54.36±0.13 and 12.65±0.11 mg/100g respectively. Results of phytochemical content showed that fermented Tamarindus indica contained tannin (64.61±0.43 mg/100 g), saponnins (127.33±0.79 mg/100 g), flavonoid (3.53±0.18 mg/100 g) and alkaloid (23.56±0.37 mg/100 g) while phytochemicals in the roasted sample were 40.97±0.21, 94.69±0.29, 1.96±0.51 and 14.33±0.12 mg/100g for tannins, saponins, flavonoid and alkaloids respectively, and were significantly lower than those in the fermented sample. Correlation analysis indicate a correlation exist between nutritional content of fermented and roasted samples of T. indica. The high crude protein, carbohydrate, calorific value and mineral content in fermented and roasted T. indica seeds indicate that the seeds could be good source of nutrient.