Abstract:
Pachira glabra is one of the many underutilized oil plants in the tropics. The oil seed is commonly
processed by boiling or roasting and consumed as snacks or hot drink for consumption. In this
study, the mature seeds were processed into flour after pre-processing by germination and roasting.
The flours were divided into two portions, a portion was defatted using n-hexane; the full fat,
defatted flours and oil extracted from the same seeds were evaluated for physicochemical
composition, antioxidant properties, functional properties and fatty acid composition. Germination
consisted of soaking seeds previously for 4 h in water and sprouting for 4 days. Roasting was done
in an open iron pan at a temperature of 75 - 85°C with continuous stirring for 10 min until the seed
turned golden brown. The results showed that germinated defatted seeds flour had higher crude
protein (19.51%) and crude fibre (11.22%) contents, when compared with the raw defatted seeds
flour having 8.75% and 4.50% of crude protein and crude fibre, respectively. The roasting was
able to reduce the phytate and oxalate contents by 45% and 18% respectively, while germination
was able to reduce it by 40% and 12% respectively in full-fat samples. The anti-nutrient to nutrient
molar ratios of the flours showed that the values were relatively low when compared to the critical
values. The antioxidant properties of the full-fat flour showed that the roasting significantly
(P>0.05) increased the level of phenolic content, flavonoid and DPPH contents by 82%, 58% and
21% respectively except for the ferric reducing antioxidant power content that shows no significant
(P>0.05) difference based on preprocessing techniques used. The germinated defatted samples
significantly increased the water and oil absorption capacities, swelling capacity, foaming capacity
and bulk density of flour by 17%, 6%, 35%, 70% and 31% respectively. Defatting improved the
water and oil absorption capacities, swelling capacity and foaming capacity of the flour. The study
revealed that roasting increased the chemical properties of the pre-processed oil seeds, having the
highest saponification value of 161.09 mg KOH/g. The fatty acids profile of the oil showed that the predominant fatty acids were oleic and linoleic which are unsaturated fatty acids, and are of
health benefits to human. Germination increased the nutritional qualities while roasting
significantly reduced the anti-nutrient properties. The flour and oil from the seeds may find use in
the food industry.
