Nutritional and Quality Characteristics of White Maize Ogi Flour Enriched with Moringa oleifera Seed

Aim: Aim is to investigate the effect of boiling and fermentation of Moringa oleifera (M. oleifera) seed on nutritional quality of enriched maize ogi flour.

Place and Duration: The study was carried out in the Department of Food Science and Technology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ife, Nigeria, between May-December, 2014.

Methodology: Raw and treated M. oleifera seed were wet milled together with fermented maize in the ratio 80:20 and sieved to obtain enriched ogi slurry. The slurry was dewatered, dried and milled to obtain ogi flour. Ogi prepared from 100% maize was used as control.

Results: The results showed significant increase (P=0.05) in protein (9.73 - 10.77%), ash (0.67 - 0.91%), and fat (10.84 - 12.34%) contents of the enriched products as compared with control (6.58, 0.53, and 5.05% for protein, ash and fat respectively). Fermentation and boiling of the seed reduced the fat content but boiling indicated the highest protein content while fermentation resulted in highest ash content. Fermentation improved P, Ca, Na and Fe (195.60, 21.80, 31.35 and 4.57 mg/100g) content of the enriched ogi. Results of sensory evaluation showed that sample with fermented M. oleifera seed was not significantly different (P=0.05) from the control.

Conclusion: The study shows that enriching white maize ogi with M. oleifera seed improves nutrients quality while fermentation and boiling lower the antinutritional factors without adverse effect on sensory attributes.