Amino Acid Profile of Conophor Nut as Affected by Fermentation and Heat Treatment

Conophor plant (Tetracarpidium conophorum) is a tropical climbing shrub that belongs to the family Euphorbiaceae. It is one of the lesser known and underutilized oilseeds. Mature conophor nuts were processed in three ways namely cooking for 2hours, roasting in hot sand at 130 oC for 1 hour and natural open air fermentation for three days. Both raw and processed samples were dried, and milled into flour for the determination of amino acid composition. The most abundant amino acids in both the raw and processed conophor samples were glutamate (14.56 16.10 g/100g protein) and aspartate (7.07 10.74 g/100g protein). Out of the essential amino acids, Isoleucine concentration was significantly (pless than0.05) reduced by roasting and fermentation while valine level was reduced by roasting. The total amino acids (TAA) in all the samples were in the range of 745.1 798.2 mg/g protein. The total essential amino acids (TEAA) content ranged between 281.5 327.7 mg/g protein. From the calculated amino acid scores, lysine was found to be the limiting amino acid in both the raw and the processed samples. Arising from the reduction in TEAA in the raw conophor sample from 41.5 % to 37.5 % due to roasting, it may not be a desirable method of processing of conophor nut. Boiling and fermentation are however recommended.