Characterization of turkey berry (Solanum torvum)- fresh, dry & powder

2017

English

Essential amino acids, fatty acids, vitamins and minerals forms the four major groups of nutrient needed to support human biochemical processes. Turkey berry has been found to possess all these nutrients, but keeping the berry in the fresh state inevitably causes high post-harvest loss. Establishing knowledge of preserved nutritional content whilst processing the turkey berry from its fresh state into powder form is thus paramount. Thus this work set out to determine the nutritional composition of fresh, dry and powder turkey berry and assess the keeping quality of the processed turkey berry powder. Proximate and chemical analysis was conducted on all three aforementioned states of berry and phytochemical and microbial analysis was carried out on the berry powder. Moisture and protein content (wet weight) recorded in processing fresh berry into powder was (84.43, 7.26, and 6.11 g/100g) and (1.44, 5.33 and 5.73 g/100g) for fresh, dry and powder respectively. There was no significant difference (ρ = 0.951> 0.05) in mineral (Ca, Fe and K) and vitamins (A, Lutein, C) content in fresh, dry and powder. Specifically, 85.50 mg/g of saponin and 8.73 g/ml of polyphenols were recorded. A reduction in quantity of saponin and polyphenol observed on weekly basis for 4 weeks showed no significant difference, ρ ≥ 0.05. There was also no microbial growth recorded in turkey berry powder over the period. Turkey berry powder which can serve as food spice is an excellent means of distributing nutrients to malnourished and all other consumers.

Otu, P. N. Y.; Sarpong, F.; Gidah, J. E.; Labanan, A. M.; Anim, D.