CHEMICAL COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONAL PROPERTIES OF MURRAYA EXOTICA AND RICINODENDRON HEUDELOTTI SEEDS

Abstract

The study was carried out on two plant seeds; Murraya exotica harvested at Bells University of Technology Ota Campus premises and Ricinodendron heudelotti obtained from Cameroon. These seeds were sun-dried, ground into powder, put in an air-tight container and kept in the refrigerator at 40C prior the analyses. The sample of Murraya exotica was divided into two portions, one portion left raw (Unfermented Murraya (UFM)) and the other was fermented (Fermented Murraya exotica (FM)) while Ricinodendron heudelotti seed (RHS) was used raw in order to determine their chemical composition, functional properties of protein and the physicochemical properties of the extracted oil using standard methods. The proximate composition (%) of the FM,UFM and RHS respectively are moisture (7.5±0.02, 7.4±0.06 and 5.2 ±0.15), ash (5.8 ±0.1, 6.5 ±0.01 and 7.1 ±0.15), protein (16.4±0.01, 10.7±0.31 and 9.4 ±0.1),fat (30.1 ±0.02, 33.1 ±0.12 and 46.4 ±0.15) and carbohydrate (37.8 ±0.02, 39.4±0.03 and 31.9 ±0.21). Studies on the functional properties showed that oil absorption capacity, emulsion capacity and least gelation are higher in the fermented seed while the foaming capacity dropped in the fermented sample but the foaming stability was the same for unfermented and fermented samples. From the physiochemical properties of the extracted oils of Murraya exotica and Ricinodendron heudelottie, the specific gravity of FM and UFM are 0.8824 and 0.9018 respectively while the refractive index were same in both oil with the value of 1.4779. The other results for acid value, saponification value and free fatty acid respectively for FM and UFM respectively are (18.2mgKOH/g and 4.0 mg KOH/g),(197.2mgKOH/g and 196.9 mg KOH/g), and (9.2% and 2.0%). In the fermented seeds the fatty acid values are quite higher in myristic, oleic as well as in linoleic but lower in the unfermented seeds, lauric acid was absent in both samples but palmitic was present in fermented seeds while it was absent in the unfermented samples. The mineral values obtained are: Copper (1.6 ±0.06; 1.8 ±0.06 and 1.0±0.12), Zinc (0.4±0.01;0.4±0.01 and 0.8±0.06), Calcium (5,614 ±0.02; 5,829±0.06 and 4,192.6 ±0.23), Magnesium (949.6±0.06; 986.4±0.27 and 884.3±0.15), Iron (22.3±0.18; 16.2±0.01 and 18.2 ±0.2) and phosphorus 30.1±0.02 , 26.9±0.01 and 30.2±0.18 )for FM,UFM and RHS respectively. Generally the samples will be of importance in food and feed formulation as well as in soap making .The fermentation has positive significance effects in the nutritional composition of the sample.