Research Article
Offia Olua, Blessing I. and Ma
Abstract
Mungbean (Vigna radiata (L.) Wilczek) seeds (400g) were each subjected to different pre-conditioning treatments (soaking, boiling and toasting) to evaluate their effect on dehulling efficiencies. They were dried, milled into flour and the effect of pre-conditioning treatments on their proximate composition and functional properties were determined. The samples were also used to produce cakes. Results showed that toasting was the least efficient method of dehulling, having the least dehulling percentages of 32.68% and 36.00% for 45 min and 60 min toasted samples respectively. Samples soaked in boiled water for 45 min were the most efficiently dehulled ( 52.64η) dehulling efficiency, followed by samples soaked in cold water for 8h and 12h (49.92η and 49.82η) dehulling efficiencies respectively which did not significantly differ (p<0.05) from the dehulling efficiency of samples soaked with sodium bicarbonate (43.68η). Toasted samples (45min and 60min) had the least protein content (22.64% and 22.81 %) and differed significantly at p<0.05 from others. Significant differences (P<0.05) existed among the functional properties of samples, especially oil absorption capacity, foam capacity, bulk density and emulsion capacity. The cakes produced from 10% mungbean: 90% wheat flour gave the best sensory characteristics when compared with the cake sample from 20% substitution with mung bean flour.