Nutrient Content of Complementary Foods Based on Processed and Fermented Sorghum, Groundnut, Spinach, and Mango

Background

Many African mothers use gruels made of maize and sorghum as complementary foods for their infants because they cannot afford the cost of nutritionally superior commercial weaning foods.

Objective

To improve the nutritional quality of traditional sorghum gruels used as complementary foods for children between six months and five years in the northern part of Cameroon.

Methods

Sorghum grains were processed by dehulling, sprouting, dehulling and cooking, and sprouting and cooking, then fermented using Saccharomyces cerevisae and tested for nutritional quality. The processed samples were analyzed for their nutrient composition and the digestibility of proteins and carbohydrates.

Results

The resulting products showed a significant reduction in antinutritional factors (e.g., phenolic compounds and phytates). In addition, germination improved the in vitro digestibility of proteins and carbohydrates. These effects were enhanced by fermentation of the resulting sorghum flour, regardless of how grains were pretreated, although the protein and mineral content remained low. Use of a composite flour made from pretreated sorghum, groundnut, spinach, and mango improved the protein, mineral, and vitamin A and C content of the gruels. Fermentation of composite flours resulted in an improvement in the protein content.

Conclusions

This study, conducted under local conditions and using local technology, describes an opportunity for improving the quality of complementary foods using local ingredients.

[Spectral-photometric determination of L-ascorbic acid with N-bromsuccinimide and starch iodide (author's transl)]

A new spectrophotometric method for the determination of L-ascorbic acid (AS) with N-bromosuccinimide (NBS) and starch iodide as an indicator was developed. The questions of pH-dependence, sensitivity and specificity of the oxidation-reduction process were investigated. The method is suitable for the determination of AS in acid solutions; the best pH was 2.6. The specificity of the method for AS cannot be considered as definitely better than other methods. Its sensitivity, however, is higher than when using 2.6-dichlorophenol-indophenol (DIP). When applied the method usually yielded results close to the DIP method and due to its high sensitivity AS determinations in very dilute and hazy solutions are possible.