NUTRITIVE ELEMENTS, PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROPERTIES OF THE BAOBAB SEED

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Certification.. iii

Dedication.. iv

Acknowledgementv

Table of Contents. vi

Abstractviii

CHAPTER ONE.. 1

1.0 Introduction.. 1

1.2 Scientific Classification.. 3

1.3 Background of Study. 4

1.4 Scope of Study. 4

CHAPTER TWO.. 6

2.0 Literature Review.. 6

2.1 Early Botanical Collectors in West Africa. 6

2.2 Fatty Acid Compositions. 7

2.3 The Nutritional Composition and Storage Stability of Millet8

2.4 Nutritive Value of a Mixture of Tigernut Tubers Cyperus esculentus L and Baobab Seeds Adansonia digitata L8

2.5 Hydrocarbon, Sterols and Tocopherols in the Seeds of Six Adansonia Species.9

2.6 Reverse DPhase High Performance Liquid Chromatography of Fatty Acid Methyl Esters with Particular Reference to Cyclopropenoic and Cyclopropanoic Acids.10

2.7 Effects of Some Processing Techniques on the Antinutrient Contents of Baobab Seeds Adansonia Digitata.11

CHAPTER THREE.. 12

3.0 Materials and Methods. 12

3.1 Materials Used. 12

3.2 Reagents. 13

3.3 Sample Preparation.. 13

3.4 Moisture Content Determination.. 14

3.5 Determination of Specific Gravity of the Oil20

CHAPTER FOUR.. 22

4.0 Result and Discussion.. 22

4.2 Discussion.. 23

CHAPTER FIVE.. 26

5.0 Conclusions and Recommendation.. 26

5.1 Conclusion.. 26

5.2 Recommendation.. 26

References. 27

ABSTRACT

The Baobab seed was analysed for moisture content, Ash content and fat content while the oil extracted from the seed was analysed for various oil characteristics and nutritive values. The seed contain 8 Moisture, 12.5 Ash and 25 fat. The saponification value mgKOH/g of oil, peroxide value Meq/100g, Acid value mgNAOH/g of oil, free fatty Acid, specific gravity and refractive index of the oil are; 70.125, 4.06, 2.6, 1.833, 0.8755 and 1.4625 respectively. The result for the various mineral constituents, Mn, Mg, Ca, Pb, Fe and Zn, ranged between 0.00 7.6mg/l. Mn is absent in the oil while Fe has the highest concentration of 7.6ppm.