ABSTRACT

This research was carried out to determine the effect of processing on the nutritional

composition of fluted pumpkin (Telfairia occidentalis) seed flour and sensory evaluation of

soup produced from the flour. Fluted pumpkin seeds were removed from the pod, washed,

dehulled and sliced into small pieces of 2 cm thick. The sliced seeds were divided into three

equal parts, coded as sample A, B and C and processed using boiling, roasting and fermentation

respectively. All processed samples were dried, milled into flour, sieved and packaged. They

were subjected to laboratory analysis @roximate, mineral, vitamin, functional properties, anti-

nutrients and sensory properties). Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed on the

generated data following the one way procedure of the SPSS software version 20.0.0 (SPSS,

2011). Duncan Mean Separation was used to separate the significant treatment means at 5%

probability level (P0.05).The result showed that in proximate composition of carbohydrate

(40.65%) of boiled fluted pumpkin seed was significant higher than other samples. The protein

content value (26.06%) of fermented fluted pumpkin seeds was significantly higher (P<0.05)

than boiled (23.43%) and roasted (21.89%) samples. There was significant increase in the fat

content (26.59%) of roasted fluted pumpkin seed than the other samples. The ash and moisture

content 2.93% and 6.96% respectively decreased significantly (P< 0.05). The study also

showed that the vitamins contents of the samples were in the ranges of (1.86-2.64tg/g) for

vitamin A, vitamin C (0.41-0.55mg/i OOg), B-Carotene (2.76-3.59 tg/100g), Vitamin B3(0.22-

0.26mg/bOg) and vitamin E (0.39-0.43mg/bOg). The swelling index (5.24%) of fermented

sample was also higher than other sample. Bulk density which ranges from 0.87-0.97% were

seen in trace amount for other sample. The study further showed that some anti-nutrients such

as phytate ranged from (2.39.-2.8smg/loog), tannins (1.83-2.77mg/bOg) and oxalate (1.88-

2.64mg/bOg). This means that the level of phytate and oxalate in the boiled sample were

below the level (5.00mg/bOg) of consumption and may likely not to be dentrimental for

human consumption. The sensory evaluation carried out by twenty panelist using a 9 point

hedonic scale showed that the boiled fluted pumpkin seed flour had the best sensory

acceptability after the "ofo" seed (Detarium microcarpium) which was the control. The

findings of this study showed that fermentation proved the best method of processing of fluted

pumpkin seeds for consumption as it showed retention of higher amounts of some of the

nutrients while boiling decrease in anti-nutrients to barest minimum.