PROXIMATE COMPOSITION, AMINO ACID PROFILING, AND SAFETY ASSESSMENT OF PROCESSED NATURAL VEGETATION OF THARPARKAR

Abstract

Some processing techniques tend to advance the overall nutritional quality of food commodities and thus may contribute to counter malnutrition in regions like Tharparkar. For scanning the efficacy of some selected processing treatments, the natural vegetation of Tharparkar (NVT) i.e., mung beans (MB), sesame seeds (SS), and pearl millet (PM), were sprouted, roasted, and blanched, respectively, and milled to flour after thermal drying.  All fresh and processed NVT, i.e., sprouted mung bean flour (SMBF), roasted sesame seed powder (RSSP), and blanched pearl millet flour (BPMF), were analyzed for proximate composition, profiling of amino acids (AAs), and safety assessment. The results demonstrated statistically different (P<0.05) mean values of fresh and processed NVT for most of the analyzed parameters. It was found that processing significantly increased (P<0.05) ash, protein, fat, and fiber content whereas significantly decreased (P<0.05) phytic and oxalic acid in the NVT. In addition, some essential AAs significantly (P<0.05) enhanced in SMBF i.e., histidine (0.45g/100g), isoleucine (0.59g/100g), lysine (0.71g/100), methionine (0.23g/100g), phenylalanine (1.54g/100g), and valine (0.32g/100g); RSSP i.e., isoleucine (1.63g/100g), leucine (4.57g/100g), lysine (0.75g/100g), phenylalanine (3.14g/100g), tryptophan (0.81g/100g), and tyrosine (2.15g/100g); and in BPMF i.e., threonine (0.55g/100g), isoleucine (0.28g/100g), leucine (1.70g/100g), methionine (0.21g/100), tryptophan (0.11g/100g), and valine(0.17g/100g). Among non-essential AAs, the alanine and glycine remained significantly higher (P<0.05) in all processed NVT i.e., 1.56, 1.29, and1.43g/100g alanine in SMBF, RSSP, and BPMF, respectively. However, glycine remained at 0.56, 0.59, and 0.23g/100g in SMBF, RSSP, and BPMF, respectively. It is therefore concluded that processing techniques exerted a significant role in enhancing nutritional profile while mitigating the antinutrient load from the NVT. Consequently, it is recommended that SMBF, RSSP, and BPMF be utilized for developing various food products to counter malnutrition in regions like Tharparkar.