The Comparative Evaluation of Amino Acid Profiles of the Dehulled and Hull Parts of Irvingia gabonensis Seeds

E. I. Adeyeye¹* and A. M. Kenni²

¹Department of Chemistry, Ekiti State University, P.M.B. 5363, Ado-Ekiti Nigeria.

²Department of Chemistry, College of Education, Ikere-Ekiti, P.M.B. 250, Ikere-Ekiti Nigeria.

ABSTRACT: The seeds of Irvingiagabonensis are a major raw material in the preparation of ogbono soup or as a condiment in the preparation of sauces used with African foods prepared from major staples such as amala, eba, pounded yam, etc. In view of this, an investigation into the concentrations of amino acids of the hull and dehulled seed parts of Irvingiagabonensis was carried out using standard methods to determine amino acid profiles; quality of dietary protein was determined using various methods like: amino acid scoresdetermination [(in three different ways; (i) amino acid score based on the whole hen’s egg, (ii) essential amino acid score based on the provisional amino acid scoring pattern, (iii) essential amino acid score based on suggested school child requirement)], essential protein efficiency ratio as well as the determination of the isoelectric point. Glutamic acid was the most abundant amino acid (10.1-15.2 g/100 g) and Leu (6.39-7.05 g/100 g) was the most abundant essential amino acid. The total essential amino acid in dehulled sample was 39.2 g/100 g (47.4 %) and 29.8 g/100 g (46.6 %) in the hull. The limiting essential amino acid (based on provisional scoring pattern) was Lys (0.64) in dehulled and Met + Cys (0.49) in hull. The essential amino acid index ranged from 0.87 (hull) to 1.21 (dehulled); the predicted protein efficiency ratio was 2.10 in hull and 2.42 in the dehulled whereas the isoelectric point ranged between 3.56 in hull and 4.53 in dehulled. At r0.05, significant differences existed in the samples in amino acid profiles and calculated isoelectric point (pI). The results of this study indicated that the amino acid profiles of Irvingia gabonensis seed hull and cotyledons are complementary in nutrition. There may therefore be no need to remove the hull in the seed when used as soup ingredient.

KEYWORDS: Irvingia gabonensis; Amino acid profiles; Dehulled seed; Hull

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