Abstract:
Malnutrition is a problem in Africa, particularly in rural areas, where starchy foods such as maize, cassava, plantain, yam, rice, and others are consumed as staple foods, resulting in a protein deficiency and thus protein malnourishment. Enrichment of this food with protein rich food sources like soybeans and sesame seeds may help to curb these problems.
Diabetes and cardiovascular diseases are prevalent in our world and there are side effect of the orthodox drugs or medication used in their treatment. The use of functional food like rice bran may help to prevent these diseases. The objective of the study therefore is to enrich the plantain flour with defatted sesame seed and rice bran and evaluate its nutritional, functional and sensory properties as well as the ability of the flour blends to lower blood glucose and blood cholesterol using animal experiment.
Flour blends of ratio, 100:0:0, 75:15:10, 70:30, 70:22:8, and 65:30:5 (plantain: defatted sesame: rice bran flour) were used to prepare dough meal. The nutritional, functional, sensory properties and in vivo studies of the flour blends were evaluated and the data obtained from the results were subjected to statistical analysis using Analysis of variance (ANOVA). The values obtained ranged from 4.93% to 16.36%, 0.50 to 3.50%, 10.95% to 12.30%, 2.33% to 5.80%, 1.59% to 3.59%, and 64.09% to 74.92% for protein, fibre, moisture, fat, ash and carbohydrate contents respectively. The 100% plantain flour had the lowest amount of protein and fibre content, the inclusion of defatted sesame and rice bran increased the protein and fibre content significantly (p <0.05). The flour blend showed significant reduction on the blood glucose level and blood cholesterol level of the experimental rats. In conclusion, addition of defatted sesame and rice bran flour by different ratios to plantain flour as used in the developed dough meal did not only improve its nutritional value, but it could also be used in the management of diabetes and cardiovascular diseases associated with blood glucose and blood cholesterol.
