African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 6 (21), pp. 2473-2476, 5 November 2007   

ISSN 1684–5315 © 2007 Academic Journals        

Full Length Research Paper

Chemical composition and functional properties of flour produced from two varieties of tigernut (Cyperus esculentus)

Oladele A. K.¹* and Aina J. O.²

¹Department of Food Technology, FCFFT, P. M. B. 1500, New Bussa, Niger State, Nigeria.

²Department of Food Technology, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.

*Corresponding author. E-mail: dekanmiscientist@yahoo.com.

Accepted 29 June, 2007

The chemical composition and functional properties of flour produced from two varieties (yellow and brown) of tigernut (Cyperus esculentus) seeds were studied. The seeds were obtained in dried form, sorted, wet cleaned, dried, milled and sieved to produce flour. The flours were tagged YTF and BTF for yellow and brown varieties, respectively. The protein contents of YTF and BTF were 7.15 and 9.70%, respectively. BTF has higher fat, ash, potassium, magnesium, manganese and iron contents than YTF. On the other hand, YTF has higher carbohydrate, crude fibre, calcium, sodium and copper contents. The zinc and copper levels were low in both flours (0.01 - 0.02 mg/100 g). A low bulk density (0.55 - 0.62 g/cm³), setback viscosity (6.58 - 13.75 RVU) and breakdown viscosity (0.58 - 1.50 RVU) were recorded for the flours.

Key words: Tigernut, flour, setback viscosity, pasting property, swelling power, retrogradation.