Temperature dependent studies on nutritional, total polyphenols, flavonoids content and antioxidant activities of Aframomum citratum (C.Pereira) K.Schum and Tetrapleura tetraptera (Schum. & Thonn.) Taub. fruits

Description. Hard shelled fruits, Tetrapleura tetraptera and Aframomum citratum nonwood forest products are used as spices and for many medicinal recipes. Mostly used together, they undergo heat treatment before being milled when cooking Mbongo Tchobi, a black spicy stew from central and coastal regions in Cameroon. Objectives. Evaluate the impact of roasting these spices on the physicochemical properties (dry matter, ash, raw protein, total sugar, raw fibre, pH, aw, total energy, total fat), phytochemical content (total polyphenol, total flavonoids) and the antioxidant activities (total antioxidant activity, FRAP, DPPH and lipid peroxidation inhibition assays) of their aqueous extracts in a home food consumption context. Method. Tetrapleura tetraptera and Aframomum citratum fruits from Ngola locality in Yokadouma (east region in Cameroon) locality were collected, sorted, cleaned and dried (72 h, 45 °C) in an oven. Cut into small pieces, a part was heated using roasting parameters deduced from preliminary tests (140 °C/10 min; 180 °C/20 min and 150 °C/12 min respectively for T. tetraptera, A. citratum and a formulation 95/5 of the two spices). The heated and unheated spices were ground and an infusion was prepared from boiling water in the proportion of 1/5 (g·ml-1) for both types of spices. Physicochemical and phytochemical characteristics (dry matter, total ash, fat, sugar, crude fibre and energy contents, pH, aw, total flavonoids and polyphenols) as well as the antioxidant activities of the aqueous extracts of the two spices and a mix of the two spices were evaluated before and after the heat treatment. Results. Heat treatment significantly (p < 0.05) reduces fat and total sugars contents but improves raw fiber contents for all spices. Phenolic content is more important for heated spices and percentage differences before and after heat treatment are between 8.0 and 23.2% for both spices. Extracts obtained with heated spices possess the best antioxidant potential. Strong significant positive correlations have been established between the phenolic compounds and the reductive antioxidant activities and negative correlations with the antiradical antioxidant activities as they are expressed as IC50 (mg·ml-1). Conclusions. In most of the features studied, the heated formulation (95/5) possesses the highest characteristics studied. The choice of heating these spices under the roasting parameters identified should be guided by the desire of improving their antioxidant potential because of the nutritional losses observed after heat treatment.