EFFECT OF PROCESSING METHOD ON THE NUTRITONAL COMPOSITION OF MONODORA MYRISTICA SEEDS (AFRICAN NUTMEG)

Abstract

Many plant seeds are usually subjected to various forms of processing techniques to make them edible. These techniques are boiling, roasting, blanching, autoclaving, soaking, fermentation, and other processing techniques, which affects the proximate, mineral, and phytochemical constituents of the seeds. Consequently, this paper examines the effect of boiling and roasting on the proximate, mineral, phytochemical, and anti-nutritional composition of Monodora myristica seeds. Analysis of the results showed that the raw seeds had the highest value of crude protein, followed by the boiled sample and the roasted sample. In all, there was downward decrease in proximate composition from the raw sample through roasted to boiled sample. Results on phytochemical composition reveals that roasting had the highest effect, except in the case of alkaloids where the boiled sample had the lowest value. In addition, there was general reduction in the anti-nutrients from raw sample through the boiled sample and the roasted sample. Keywords:  Monodora myristica, Boiling, Roasting, Antinutrients, Food nutrients