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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.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the effect of dehulling/soaking on the chemical, functional and anti‐nutritional contents of three varieties of beans. This research work involved comparative study of the underutilized bean species with the commonly consumed beans in Nigeria.

Three species of legumes were used for this study. The cowpea seeds were divided into two parts. One part was milled and packaged for raw flour while the other part was dehulled and soaked for 30 min, dried in the oven, milled and packed. For the pigeon pea and African yam beans, the raw beans were milled and packaged while part of the seeds was steamed for 5 min and the coats were removed. The dehulled beans were soaked for 30 min, dried in the oven, milled and packaged. Chemical, functional and anti‐nutritional content were determined on the samples.

Fat content ranged from 0.95 to 1.98 per cent. Ash and crude fibre ranged from 1.98 to 6.13 and 2.41 to 7.90 per cent, respectively. Raw cowpea had the highest calcium content (3.86 per cent) while pigeon pea had higher value in magnesium content (2.01 per cent). Raw African yam beans had the highest iron content (23.44 per cent). Bulk density, swelling index and water‐absorption capacity ranged from 0.53 to 0.92 g/cm³, 2.3 to 5.9 and 0.9 to 2.8 ml H₂O/g, respectively. African yam bean had higher values in oxalate, phytate and tannin contents while cowpea had higher saponin content. Raw flour of pigeon pea had higher value in trypsin inhibitor.

This work enables us to make use of the underutilized beans. These beans were higher in nutrients than the cowpea used. Processing of these beans will make them useful for human nutrition without imposing any health problem to the consumer. They could also be converted to flour and used in formulating food such as weaning food.

Soybean is potentially a rich source of protein and lipids along with isoflavone. However, the use of soybean is limited due to presence of anti-nutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitor, phytic acid, etc. The present study aimed at evaluation of Harit soya seeds of different treatments such as soaking, dehulling, germination, soaking+roasting and roasting in order to enhance its quality.

Harit soya seeds were utilized were soaked overnight and subjected for dehulling, germination for 3 days as well as roasting followed by drying to obtain fine powder for quality evaluation.

Dehulling and germination produce significant (p < 0.01) increase in protein, crude fiber, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, total phenolics, flavonoids and isoflavones while fat was decreased non-significantly. The highest value of 12.4 mg/100g, 5.3 mgGAE/g and 6.6 mg/g for ascorbic acid, total phenolics and isoflavones was found in germinated seeds. Also, the effect of soaking, roasting and their combination lead to significant decrease in the functional properties of the seeds. Anti-nutritional factors were significantly (p < 0.01) reduced in all forms of treated seeds while pepsin and trysin digestibility was enhanced during soaking, dehulling and germination with maximum value of 72.6 and 25.8%, respectively in germinated seeds.

Improvement in quality of evergreen variety of soybean using cost effective traditional methods

Both pressure cooking and solar cooking significantly reduced the phytic acid and polyphenol content of cowpea cultivars. A significantly greater reduction in the content of both these antinutrients was noticed during pressure and solar cooking of soaked cowpeas compared to unsoaked seeds. The percentage reduction increased when the soaked cowpeas were dehulled and then cooked by both pressure and solar cooking. The results of the study reveal that solar cooking was more effective than pressure cooking in reducing the concentrations of phytic acid and polyphenols in cowpeas. The cumulative effect of soaking and dehulling, followed by solar cooking, was the removal of most of the polyphenols (88‐94 per cent). Such practices should be encouraged at the home level for the preparation of cowpea seeds.

The purpose of this paper is to address malnourishment in developing countries by a food-based approach in which locally produced and consumed foods are improved by applying food processing techniques that benefit the amount and availability of desirable nutrients.

To facilitate this approach, this paper reports on the composition and in vitro micronutrient accessibility of 14 traditional mung bean foods from India in relation to their preparation methods.

Proximate composition, in vitro mineral accessibility, phytic acid and polyphenol contents varied among the range of products. Products requiring either fermentation or germination, had higher in vitro iron, zinc and calcium accessibility. Average in vitro iron, zinc and calcium accessibility of the mung bean products were 16, 9 and 418 mg kg−1 dry weight. Phytic acid and polyphenols averaged 2.1 and 1.8 g kg−1 dry weight, respectively, and were negatively correlated with in vitro mineral accessibility.

Different mung bean products (100 g) cover 12.0-59.5, 5.2-45.6, 4.2-28.6 and 1.1-7.1 per cent of the recommended dietary allowance for protein, iron, zinc and calcium, respectively, for seven- to nine-year-old Indian children.

This study demonstrated the wide range of traditional mung bean foods in India and presents options to tackle malnourishment by a food-based approach.

The bioavailability of iron from faba bean is low because it is present as an insoluble complex with food components such as phytate, fiber and tannin. The purpose of this paper is to try to identify the nature of the complexes between anti‐nutritional factors and iron in faba bean and legume fractions by using simulations of gastro‐intestinal digestion.

To this aim, the authors evaluated the effect of the action of fiber‐ and/or phytate‐degrading enzymes on solubilization of iron from insoluble residues obtained after gastro‐intestinal digestion of faba bean flour and fractions.

In insoluble residues of raw faba bean flour, simultaneous action of cellulase and phytases made it possible to release about 28 percent units more iron than that released with the treatment without enzymes. About 49.8 percent of iron in raw faba bean flour was solubilized after in vitro digestion and simultaneous action of cellulase and phytase. In the residues of the hull fraction, a significant increase in iron solubility has not been seen (p>0.05) after action of cellulase or phytases. Simultaneous action of cellulase and phytase led to the release of more than 60 and 18 percent units of additional iron for residues of dehulled faba bean and hull fractions, respectively.

In dehulled faba bean, iron was chelated by phytates and fibers. In the hull of faba bean, a high proportion of iron was chelated by iron‐tannins, while the rest of iron was chelated in complexes between phytates and fibers.

Soaked–dehulled moth bean seed (SDMBS) powder was incorporated into wheat flour and the paper aims to investigate its effects on the nutritional and quality properties of composite bread.

Different ratios of SDMBS powder (0%–12.5%) were mixed into wheat flour to prepare composite bread. Proximate composition, mineral content and functional properties of SDMBS powder and wheat flour were studied. The composite bread samples were assayed for proximate composition, mineral nutrients, amino acid composition, physical characteristics as well as sensorial properties.

Protein and ash contents of SDMBS powder were found to be 2.15 and 5.69 fold higher than wheat flour. Water absorption capacity (WAC), oil absorption capacity (OAC), (FC) and emulsion activity (EA) values of SDMBS powder were also 1.63, 1.78, 4.43 and 1.58 times higher than wheat flour, respectively. The inclusion of different levels of SDMBS powder into wheat flour significantly (p = 0.05) increased the functional properties of composite flours. Bread samples fortified with SDMBS powder exhibited higher values of essential amino acids than the recommendations of World Health Organization/Food and Agriculture Organization/United Nations University (2007). The bread samples containing 10% and 12.5% of SDMBS powder provided 39.23% and 41.15% of the recommended lysine level, respectively. The addition of a higher proportion of SDMBS powder into wheat flour gradually increased the protein and ash contents of the bread samples. Control sample without SDMBS powder (0%) and samples fortified containing 2.5% and 5% of SDMBS powder received the highest scores of overall acceptance, whereas the bread sample with the highest SDMBS powder (12.5%) content received the lowest scores.

The main findings of the current investigation indicated that the addition of 2.5–5% of SDMBS powder into wheat flour enhanced the nutritional and quality characteristics of wheat bread.

SDMBS powder could be incorporated into refined wheat bread to achieve functional bread with significantly higher protein content.

Ricebean (RB‐32) contained significantly (p < 0.05) higher amounts of total soluble (5.6g/100g) and non‐reducing sugars (5.0g/100g) than fababean (VH‐82‐1). On the other hand, the contents of starch and reducing sugars were more in fababean (53.2g/100g; 608.7mg/100g) than those in ricebean (50.7g/100g; 547.3mg/100g). The starch digestibility (mg maltose released/g meal) of whole raw seeds and husk of ricebean and fababean was 30.8; 6.3 and 42.1; 6.3, respectively. Due to soaking, sprouting and dehulling, a significant (p < 0.05) improvement occurred in in vitro starch digestibility of both ricebean and fababean. Germination for 24 hours in ricebean and 48 hours in fababean was found to be the best as it could improve the starch digestibility to the extent of 100 to 90 per cent over the control.

This paper aims to investigate the effect of hydrothermal treatment by conventional, microwave and pressure cooking on the cooking properties, proximate composition and organoleptic characteristics of dehulled Moringa oleifera seeds.

Samples of Moringa oleifera seeds were subjected to cooking for the minimum time by each of the methods under study. Cooking properties, proximate composition and organoleptic characteristics were determined following standard analytical procedures.

The results showed that the average cooking time were 25, 30 and 40 mins for conventionally, pressure- and microwave-cooked moringa kernels, respectively. There was no significant difference in cooking weight, moisture absorbed and water uptake ratio of conventionally and pressure-cooked samples. The protein content of moringa kernel reduced from 41.9 for raw kernels to 40.2, 41.2 and 36.9 per cent for conventionally, pressure- and microwave-cooked samples, respectively. Pressure and microwave cooking indicated 40.1 and 39.3 g/100g of crude fat, whereas raw kernels indicated 37.1 g/100g. Conventionally and pressure-cooked kernels had lower fibre content than the raw kernels, but there was no significant difference in the ash contents of the samples. Cooking influenced the proximate composition and colour of moringa kernels. Microwave cooking indicated higher values of cookability than other cooking methods considered in this study, but no significant difference was observed in the organoleptic characteristics of moringa kernels due to the cooking methods.

Given the high protein and vital nutrients content which are seldom found in daily diets, moringa kernels may be considered by processors of edible nuts and kernels for food-based applications such as cooked, roasted, mixed or spiced kernels.

This work is perhaps the first to document moringa seeds processing by hydrothermal treatment.

The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the impact of modern and traditional decortication methods on the chemical composition, antinutrients, Ca, P and Fe contents during storage of two pearl millet cultivars (white and green) grown in Sudan.

The grains of each cultivar were either decorticated traditionally using traditional stone dehuller or by using modern dehuller. The chemical composition, antinutrients and Ca, P and Fe contents of the cultivars were evaluated during storage for six months.

The results showed that both methods of decortication (modern and traditional) employed significantly decreased ash, protein, oil and crude fiber contents but increased moisture and nitrogen free extract contents of the grains for both cultivars. Storage resulted in a slight and gradual decrease in the chemical composition of the treated and untreated grains of the cultivars. Modern decortication of the grains significantly (P=0.05) reduced tannin content in both cultivars compared to untreated and traditionally decorticated grains. Phytic acid content of the white cultivar was not affected by the method of decortication used but modern decortication reduced that of green cultivar. Decrease in tannin and phytic acid was observed as the storage continued in both treated and untreated cultivars. Decortication significantly (P=0.05) reduced the Ca, P and Fe contents in both cultivars grains. Lower P and Fe contents were found in modern decorticated grains compared to traditional decorticated ones. Storage of the cultivars resulted in gradual decrease in Ca, P and Fe contents.

Processing methods such as decortication affect the quality attributes of pearl millet cultivars. The application of modern decortication method on pearl millet cultivars has better quality attributes than those treated with traditional decortication.

The study uses decortication methods (traditional and modern) to improve the quality attributes of pearl millet cultivars. Antinutrients such as tannin and phytic acid were observed to reduce the bioavailability of minerals like Fe. Decortication of the grains significantly reduced the level of such antinutrients and improved bioavailability of minerals.