Department

Consumer and Food Sciences

Degree

MSc (Food Science) (with distinction)

Phenolic compounds, functional and antioxidant properties of flowers from microwave pre-treated Bambara groundnut seeds

Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea. L.) is an underutilised and under-researched legume crop which is an important source of protein and other nutrients, mainly in countries in sub-Saharan Africa. It is consumed in a wide variety of forms such as soups, stews and increasingly as a flour with various food applications. Bambara groundnut is also susceptible to the hard-to-cook (HTC) defect as in many other legumes. Microwave processing is increasingly being used as a pre-treatment method for legumes to alleviate the HTC defect and inactivate anti-nutritional factors in the production of legume flours. This presents an opportunity for application of microwave processing to Bambara groundnut seeds for preparation of flours. Bambara groundnut also contain bioactive phenolic compounds with potential health-promoting properties in terms of combating non-communicable diseases (NCDs) associated with oxidative stress. However, phenolic compounds can be affected by thermal processing treatments such as microwave processing. In this study, the effect of microwave pre-treatment of Bambara groundnut seeds on the HTC defect as well as functional and antioxidant properties and phenolic content of its flours were determined.

Email

[email protected]

Supervisors

• Primary Supervisor: Prof KG Duodu
• Co-supervisor: Prof MN Emmambux

Conferences

• Venter, A., Duodu, K.G. and Emmambux, M.N. (2019) Effect of microwave pre-treatment on cooking time of Bambara groundnut seeds and functional properties of the resultant flowers. SAAFoST conference, 1-4 September 2019, Johannesburg, South Africa