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The purpose of this paper is to review phytochemical potential of acacia and its associated health advantages. Acacia a moderate-sized, deciduous tree and recognised as health-promoting species because of availability of essential bioactive components. The bioactive compounds such as tannins, flavonoids, alkaloids, fatty acids and polysaccharides (gums) present in the plant parts of acacia, namely, bark, leaves, flowers, fruits, twigs and seeds, have medicinal value and thus are used to overlay the formulations of plant-based drugs and value-added foods.

Major well-known bibliometric information sources such as Web of Science, Scopus, Mendeley and Google Scholar were searched with keywords such as “nutrition value of acacia”, “bioactive compounds”, “health benefits”, “processing and safety” were chosen to obtain a database of 1,428 papers. The search considered papers in the English language from the past 18 years of publication in journals (2004–2022). The article selection process consisted of the screening of titles and abstracts, based on inclusion and exclusion criteria. Articles that did not have acacia components as a study objective were taken into consideration for exclusion. A final database of 87 scientific sources was made after sorting and classifying them according to different criteria based on topic relevance, country of origin and year of publication. Articles with other random descriptors were also searched to complement the discussion of the results obtained.

The literature reflected that acacia contains all necessary phytochemicals like polyphenols, flavonoids, terpenoids, glucosinolates, alkaloids and carotenoids along with essential macro, micro-nutrients. Furthermore, processing methods such as soaking, cooking, roasting and dehusking significantly reduced the anti-nutritional factors present in acacia seeds of different species. This review also focused on the processing methods that are used to eliminate or lower down the anti-nutritional factors from the seeds. Previous findings related to acacia plant parts with respect to food development are explored and mentioned.

This review emphasised mainly on recent studies that had been reported on ethnomedical acacia plants therapeutically, commercially and exponentially for further studies to increase the utilisation in food processing.

African yam bean (Sphenotylis stenocarpa), bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean), pigeon pea (Cajanus cajan) and lima bean (Phaseolus luunatus) are some of the minor grain legumes found in Nigeria. Their utilization has been very limiting because little is known about their nutritive value. The proximate, minerals and antinutritional factors of two collections of African yam bean, lima beans and pigeon pea, and one collection of bambara groundnut seeds grown in south‐western Nigeria were studied.

Dry seeds of two collections of African yam bean, pigeon pea and lima beans, and a collection of bambara groundnut were collected from Oyo and Ondo States in south‐western Nigeria. The legumes were sorted, milled and stored in polythene bags at 4°C.

The crude protein in the legumes was in the range of 22–37 per cent, crude fat 1.47–4.96 per cent, crude fibre 1.92–7.21 per cent and ash 3.33–5.61 per cent. K, Ca and P were in the range of 0.15–0.52 per cent. Iron content of the seeds was very low. The antinutrients, tannin, phytic acid and trypsin inhibitor were very high when compared to those of cowpea, groundnut and soybean.

It therefore implies that consumption of these legumes will require processes that will reduce their antinutritional factors.

The purpose of this paper is to review the nutritional and food value of pumpkin Cucurbita, along with different health benefits. Cucurbita (pumpkin) is an herbaceous vine, member of Cucurbitaceae family. It is an edible, heat-sensitive plant, which has an abundant amount of active compounds such as carotenoids, alkaloids, flavonoids, polyphenols, tannins, tocopherols, phytosterols and cucurbitacin, accounted for numerous health benefits, namely, antidiabetic, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, hypotensive, hyper protective activities.

Major well-known bibliometric information sources such as Web of Science, Scopus, Mendeley and Google Scholar were searched with keywords such as nutrition value of Cucurbita, Cucurbita utilization, bioactive compounds of pumpkin, health benefits, processing, food formulations and current scenarios were chosen to obtain a large range of papers to be analyzed. A final inventory of 105 scientific sources was made after sorting and classifying them according to different criteria based on topic, academic field, country of origin and year of publication.

The comprehensive review of different literature, data sources and research papers seeks to find and discuss various nutritional benefits of pumpkin. It contains all necessary macro- and micro-nutrients, amino acids, vitamins, antioxidants and bioactive compounds with a relatively low amount of antinutrients. The recent upsurge in consumer interest for health-promoting products has opened up new vistas for plant products containing bioactive compounds in different food formulations.

This paper contains information regarding the chemical composition, nutritive value, phytochemical studies, pharmacological properties, bio-accessibility, food and industrial applications of pumpkin. Worldwide, pumpkin is used as food additive in various food products such as candy, weaning mix, corn grits, kheer, jam, crackers, bread, etc. Effect of different processing methods such as high temperature, pH, blanching, oven drying, freeze-drying to retain or minimize its losses in case of color, texture, flavor, and the carotenoids are of concern. The review paper highlights the nutritional, therapeutic, potential and processing attributes.

This paper seeks to demonstrate that the nutritional composition of bambara groundnut (BG) seeds can be influenced when subjected to three traditional processing methods (i.e. fermentation, roasting, and germination).

Proximate, minerals, amino acids and antinutritional factors of each of the processed food samples were investigated using AOAC methods. The results of the study were as follows: For the proximate analysis, moisture content ranged between: 1.50‐2.16 g/100 g; fat 6.02‐6.57 g/100 g; protein 20.00‐20.49 g/100 g; ash 1.17‐3.46 g/100 g; carbohydrate 65.82‐68.74 g/100 g and energy 400.2‐412.18kcal. For the minerals composition, calcium ranged between 14.12± 0.01‐18.26±0.01 mg/100 g, potassium 57.61±0.01‐80.62±0.02 mg/100 g, magnesium 50.47± 0.01‐69.34±0.02 mg/100 g, sodium 19.05±0.01‐25.97±0.01 mg/100 g, iron 0.15±0.01‐0.48± 0.01 mg/100 g, selenium 0.00±0.00‐0.21±0.01 mg/100 g and phosphorus 164.73±0.01‐187.13± 0.01 mg/100 g, while the Ca/P and Na/K ratios of the food samples range between 0.10±0.01‐0.19±0.01 and 0.30±0.01‐0.35±0.01 respectively. The total amino acid and percentage of total essential amino acid for children and adults were higher in germinated BG seed flour than fermented and roasted BG flour respectively.

The findings were that the antinutritional content of fermented bambara groundnut seed flour was low compared with germinated and roasted bambara groundnut seed flour.

The protein content of fermented bambara groundnut flour was higher and also had a low level of antinutritional factors compared with other processed bambara groundnut flour. In view of these, further study may be conducted to establish the suitability of incorporating the fermented bambara groundnut flour into weaning food.

The study showed that these traditional processing methods, that is, fermentation, germination and roasting, influenced the nutritional composition of bambara groundnut seeds.

This paper aims to determine the influence of genotype and environment on tannins, phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin content of African yam bean (AYB). The presence of antinutritional factors (ANFs) alongside hardness-to-cook have been identified as reasons for the neglected and under-utilized status of AYB, a protein-rich legume. Various researchers have focused on ways to reduce these ANFs. However, breeding varieties of AYB with low levels of these ANFs offers a more satisfactory long-term solution to this problem.

Fifteen genotypes of AYB were grown in three different locations – Abakaliki (6° 19′ N 8° 6′ E), Enugu (6° 52′ N 7° 37′ E) and Ibadan (7° 26′ N 3° 53′ E). The locations are representative of the major areas where AYB are produced in Nigeria. Seeds were collected and analysed for the presence of haemagglutinin, phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors and tannin.

Genotype effects were strongest in controlling haemagglutinin content, while environment was the major source of variation for phytic acid, trypsin inhibitors and tannin content. Therefore, variability in the levels of these ANFs in AYB depends largely on the environment where they are grown. Genotype × environment was significant for all the ANFs.

The implication of this is that an AYB genotype grown and safely consumed in an environment could have antinutritional effects when grown and consumed in another environment.

While research has been carried out on genotypic variations in ANFs of AYB, limited work has been done on the effect of genotype × environment interactions on these ANFs.

Soybean has great nutritional potential. Its high protein content makes it an alternative protein source to milk in situations where milk cannot be used due to allergic reactions or intolerance. However, the potential benefits of soybean might be limited by the presence of antinutritional factors, including trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA). The purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of dehulling and germination on the nutritive value of the soy flour and on the factors that could negatively affect the nutritional potential of the bean.

Soybean seeds were soaked for 24 h and allowed to germinate for one to three days. Soaked soybeans were manually dehulled and the flours obtained were evaluated for nutritional and antinutritional factors.

Dehulling and germination produce significant increase in crude protein and crude fiber and ash content (p = 0.05). Crude fat and starch content decreased, but the reduction was insignificant. Trypsin inhibitor levels were significantly lower after germination and dehulling of the seeds (p = 0.05).

Dehulling and germination are cost-effective processing techniques to improve the nutritional quality of the legume.

Iron deficiency anaemia and zinc deficiency are major public health problems across the globe. Cereals and pulses are important vegetarian source of minerals like zinc (Zn) and iron (Fe), however, poor digestibility impairs proper availability of micro minerals in the body. Chickpea (Cicer arietinum L.) and cowpea (Vigna unguiculata L. Walp) were selected for study as they are important pulse crops consumed worldwide. Therefore, in order to remove antinutrients and enhance bioavailability of nutrients in chickpea and cowpea, extrusion cooking was selected as a technology and its impact was studied by an in vitro method. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Four chickpea cultivars, two desi (K 850 and PUSA 362) and two kabuli (PUSA 1108 and PUSA 1053) and one cowpea (Gomati) cultivars were selected for the study. Pulses were processed in a laboratory using a single screw food extruder. Raw and extruded pulses were analysed for antinutrients content, micronutrients content (Fe, Zn) and their bioavailability.

Extrusion cooking significantly decreased phytate in all cultivars of chick pea and cowpea with highest reduction (72.92 per cent) in PUSA 362; similarly, tannin and trypsin inhibitor decreased by 87.5 and 71.54 per cent, respectively, in Gomati cultivar of cowpea. All cultivars showed significant increase in protein digestibility. Iron bioavailability in all samples enhanced significantly; however, only 50 per cent cultivars (K 850, PUSA 362 and PUSA 1108) showed improvement in Zn bioavailability.

The present research therefore brought the outcome as an enhanced in vitro protein digestibility and bioavailability of micro mineral and protein in certain pulses having minimized antinutrients. Therefore, it is concluded that extrusion cooking is an effective tool in enhancing protein and micro mineral bioavailability.

This paper aims to focus on the effect of fermentation, roasting and germination on tamarind seed flour.

Tamarind seeds were treated using three different methods, namely, fermentation, roasting and germination. Fermentation was allowed for four days, roasting was carried out at 180°C at three time regimens of 10, 15 and 20 min and germination was done at 10, 15 and 20 days. Samples were analysed at intervals for proximate composition, antinutritional factors and functional properties using standard methods.

Protein, crude fat, crude fibre contents and pH increased significantly (p < 0.05) as fermentation progressed, while ash content and carbohydrate reduced. Protein, crude fat and crude fibre contents decreased significantly (p < 0.05) as roasting progressed, while ash content, carbohydrate and pH increased. Protein and crude fibre contents increased significantly (p < 0.05) as germination progressed, while crude fat, ash content, carbohydrate and pH reduced. Processing resulted in significant reduction of the phytate, tannin and trypsin inhibitor.

Processed seeds of Tamarindus indica can be used to fortify local cereals (millet/maize) with other ingredients to produce complementary foods with good nutritional quality and consequently as a tool for meeting community nutritional needs.

The paper has demonstrated effect of fermentation, roasting and germination in enhancement of functional and nutritional properties of tamarind seed flour for utilization as a food ingredient.

Several factors may play critical roles in alterations to product quality during storage of hog plum juice. This study aims to evaluate variations to physicochemical, antioxidant, anti-nutritional properties and microbial stability of hog plum juice during storage.

Juice was produced from hog plum fruits and stored for eight weeks at refrigerated and ambient conditions. Physicochemical, antioxidant properties, antinutritional factors and microbial properties of juices were determined using standard procedures

Degradation of ascorbic acid was higher in juices stored at ambient conditions (64.4%) compared to those stored by refrigeration (44.4%). Trends were similar for total phenolic, total flavonoid and total carotenoid contents. Total phenolic, total carotenoid and lycopene contents of fresh juice were 3.9 mg GAE/mL, 4.0 mg/mL and 1.3 mg/mL, which were not significantly different (at p = 0.08, 0.07 and 0.08, respectively) from the values at two weeks of storage at refrigerated conditions (3.9 mg GAE/mL, 3.9 mg/mL and 1.3 mg/mL). A sharp decrease of more than 40% (p = 0.02) in lycopene was recorded after four weeks, irrespective of storage temperature. Pasteurized hog plum juice showed no microbial growth until after four weeks of refrigerated storage when 1 CFU/mL each of bacterial and fungal growth were recorded. The juices, however, showed higher susceptibility to fungal growth as storage period increased.

Other variables not considered in this study such as nature of packaging materials may have significantly contributed to the observed data set. Further studies may, therefore, widen the scope of discussion to evaluate the associated relationship of these variables. Hog plum juice retained a considerable amount of bioactive components during refrigerated storage, which makes it a viable nutraceutical drink with industrial potentials and possible positive health implications for consumers.

This study provides new information that support the possible classification and use of hog plum juice as a safe functional beverage for human consumption.

Although the effect of storage temperature was significant in most of the properties studied, storage duration seems to have a greater influence on the stability of quality parameters during the storage of hog plum juice.

The purpose of this study is to assess the protein (biological) quality of pecan and pine nuts supplemented diets in male Wistar albino rats.

A randomized and controlled study (45 d) was conducted in male Wistar albino rats (n = 60) comprising six groups, namely, control (Cc), control with 1% cholesterol (C_C1), Pecan group (Pe), Pecan group supplemented with 1% cholesterol (Pi₁), Pine group supplemented with 1% cholesterol (Pi₁). Protein quality of supplemented diet/s was assessed in terms of various biological indices.

Pe and Pi groups exhibited normal growth when compared with Cc. Despite showing higher feed and protein intake, Pe and Pi groups exhibited significantly (P = 0.023) lower weight gain than Cc. There was no significant difference between the protein efficiency ratio (3.8 ± 0.2 and 3.7 ± 0.2), apparent protein digestibility (81.5 ± 2.2 and 80.5 ± 2%), true protein digestibility (90.6 ± 1.1 and 88.5 ± 3.5%) and biological value (BV) (75.6 ± 0.9 and 72.6 ± 0.9%) of Pe and Pi groups, respectively. Pe group presented considerably higher net protein utilization (68.5 ± 1.4 vs 64.4 ± 0.8%) and protein retention efficiency (34.8 ± 1.1 vs 31.2 ± 1.3%) than Pi group. Overall, pecan-based diet displayed superior biological quality over pine nut. Antinutrients present in the nuts did not show any major negative effect on the growth, digestibility and bioavailability of the nutrients in rats. BV ranging from 72.6% to 75.6% suggested a satisfactory quality of experimental nut-based diets.

Further investigation of pecan and pine nuts consumption to examine the potential benefits and associated mechanisms of action is warranted which would aid in a better understanding and to establish nutritional recommendations.

Overall, the exploitation of pecan and pine nut flours for the development of value-added food products is favorable from a nutritional point of view.