EFFECT OF CONCENTRATION OF TRADITIONAL DE-BITTERING AGENT ON THE PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, AMINO ACIDS, ANTI-NUTRIENTS AND ORGANOLEPTIC QUALITY OF Lasianthera africana LEAF

In the present study, effects of concentration of traditional de-bittering agent on the proximate composition, amino acid profile, anti-nutritional factors and organoleptic quality of Lasianthera africana leaf were investigated. The leaves (“afia” variety) were cut (2 mm width), shared into six equal portions of 1 kg each and blanched for 3 minutes at 100°C in hot water (control) and in different concentrations (0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.00 and 1.25%) of unripe plantain peel ash solution as de-bittering agents. The blanched samples were drained, cooled, oven dried (50°C for 36 hours) and analyzed for the aforementioned constituents. The un-dried blanched coded samples were used for organoleptic evaluation. Results showed that samples blanched in different concentrations of unripe plantain peel ash solution before drying had higher crude protein, ash and crude fibre contents but lower crude fat, carbohydrate, hydrogen cyanide, phytate, oxalate and trypsin inhibitor contents than hot water blanched and dried sample. The ash and crude fibre contents increased while the carbohydrate and anti-nutrients decreased with increase in unripe plantain peel ash in the de-bittering solution. Sample blanched in 0.50% ash solution had the highest crude protein (18.90±0.00%), total amino acids (75.75±0.11 g/100 g), total essential amino acids (32.87±0.05 g/100 g) and total sulphur amino acids (2.10±0.01 g/100 g) contents while the hot water blanched and dried sample had the least values of 18.35±0.11%, 51.05±0.10 g/100 g, 21.49±0.07 g/100 g and 1.17±0.00 g/100 g, respectively. The flavour, after taste and overall acceptability of the samples blanched in 0.50 and 0.75% solution of unripe plantain peel ash were the most preferred by the panelists while the same attributes of the samples blanched in hot water were judged as the least preferred. The results inferred that L. africana leaf de-bittered in 0.50% to 0.75% solution of unripe plantain peel ash produced acceptable product of high protein and crude fibre contents with appreciable low levels of anti-nutritional factors.