COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF THE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OFRAWVERSUS FERMENTED MORINGA (Morings oleifera) SEED MEAL

Abstract

The study was conducted to evaluate the proximate and Phytochemical composition of moringa (Moringa oleifera) seed meal. Raw Moringa oleifera seeds which served as the control was milled into a fine powder to ensure homogeneity then tied in a polythene nylon prior laboratory analysis. The moringa seeds (1kg) used for fermentation study were soaked inside 3litres of water in a clean steel bowl for a period of 24hours. Thereafter, the water was discarded and the moringa seeds were further sub-divided into two (500g each) and were labelled appropriately. The samples were packed in separate airtight polythene bags ready for fermentation. Half part was fermented for a period of 24 hours, while second half was fermented for 48hours duration. The samples were then sundried for 5 days and milled. The three samples were then analyzed for proximate and phytochemical analysis. Proximate results revealed a linear improvement in the Crude protein (32.25 and 33.60%) and ether extract (11.27 and 12.42%) contents of the (24 and 48 hours) fermented moringa seeds when compared with the raw (26.57 and 9.5%) sample for the crude protein and ether extract respectively. There was a remarkable decreased in the phytochemical contents of the fermented samples across all the parameters as compared to the raw sample. The percentage reduction of 91.70,94.36% and 92.77, 94.83%for phytic acid and oxalate respectively increased with the duration of fermentation over 24 and 48 hours respectively. Therefore, it was concluded that fermentation over 24 and 48 hours period greatly improved the nutritive value of the moringa seed meal.