Prosopis cineraria (L.) Pods: A Dessert Delicacy and Disease Mitigating Foodstuff

Abstract

Prosopis cineraria (Linn) Druce is commonly known as ‘Khejri’ and has been given the sobriquet ‘king of desert’ for its valuable nutritional and health-enhancing properties. The present investigation has been aimed at determining proximate and phytochemical composition and antioxidant potential of P. cineraria (L.) Druce. The food stuff contained 21% protein, 63% carbohydrate and qualifies for a low-fat food option containing 1.05% fat. It has reasonably good antioxidant potential as DPPH, ABTS and FRAP activities stood at 59.2% inhibition, 89.2% inhibition and 1.33 mmol Fe2+ equivalents/100 g, respectively. Of phytochemical content, it contains 48.06, 3.8 and 64.0 mg/g of total phenol, tannins and flavonoids, respectively. The pod extract possessed antioxidant activity to act as an antidote against free radical generation so as to make this food stuff health enhancing.