Study of the nutritional values and sanitary quality of soumbala collected from six regions of Burkina Faso

Soumbala is regularly consumed as a condiment in most households in Burkina Faso. The purpose of this study was, therefore, to assess its nutritional and sanitary quality. To achieve this purpose, samples of sombala have been analysed for the determination of pH, water and ash contents, biochemical parameters, mineral elements, and aflatoxin contents. Results showed that Fada N’Gourma soumbala had the highest water content (6.72%) and the highest pH value (7.04), while Po soumbala had the highest ash content (4.68%). The highest protein content was found in the samples from Ouagadougou (48.03%). For lipids, the highest contents were found in the samples from Fada N'Gourma (48.16%). The samples taken from Gaoua were found to have the highest content of carbohydrates (17.16%). As for the mineral elements, the samples with the highest contents of zinc (9.33 mg/100 g) and selenium (4.83 mg/100 g) were those from Fada N’Gourma. The samples from Ouahigouya had the highest content of iron (6.28 mg/100 g). Aflatoxin B2 was found in the Po and Fada N’Gourma samples with contents of 0.47 ppb and 0.48 ppb respectively. The results showed that soumbala is a good dietary supplement even if some disparities in the levels of secondary metabolites have been observed between regions. Extension of this study to all the regions of the country will serve as a database for the project to establish the table of nutritional values of foodstuffs currently underway in Burkina Faso.   Key words: Burkina Faso, soumbala, nutitional, quality.