ABSTRACT

The chemical composition, antinutritional factors, and effect of salt concentrations on the . functional properties of vegetable cowpea (sesquipedalis) seeds during autoclaving and germination were investigated. The result shows that processing reduced the protein content from 24.90% dry wt, in the raw seeds to 18.58% dry wt in the autoclaved samples. Germination increased moisture content from 10.53% in the raw to 10.6% in the germinated seeds. There was a decrease in the fat content due to processing. Both raw \ and autoclaved samples contain high amount of phosphorus (12.1 and 11.7mg/100g). calcium and iron contents of the seeds were reduced due to autoclaving and germination while processing generally raised the magnesium (25.2%). Autoclaving and germination brought about a decrease in levels of antinutritional factors analysed. Alkaloids, Saponins, Tannins, Oxalate and Phytic acid were reduced from 4.4%, 6.6%, 0.49%, 0.29%, and 0.24mg/100g in the autoclaved samples respectively. Autoclaving and germination reduced trypsin inhibitor, activity, haemagglutinin and Raffinose and stachyose. Autoclaving increased the water and oil absorption capacities while germination brought about a decrease in the foam capacity from 35.5ml in the raw to 8.78ml in the germinated samples. Both raw and germinated seeds had the same values for gelation 16%, while autoclaving brought about an increase in gelling ability of cowpea 18.0%. the effect of NaCl on the functional properties of the samples suggested that water absorptivity, emulsification, foamability and gelation were affected by the salts and that these effects were functions of the concentrations. This shows that salt may be used at appropriate concentrations to enhance stabilities or inhibit the functionalities of the flours.