compositional evaluation of raw and processed harms (brachystegia eurycoma) seed flour

brachystegia eurycoma is predominantly grown in the eastern region of nigeria. its seed is used in food majorly as a soup condiment, flavouring agent and soup thickener. the proximate, mineral and amino acid compositions were determined on raw and processed seeds (boiled, fermented and roasted) using standard analytical techniques. the processing methods showed deviations in nutrients from the raw seeds. the crude protein was reduced by the processing methods with exception of roasting method. crude fat was reduced in all the processing methods in this order: raw > fermented > roasted > boiled samples. all the processing methods enhanced calcium content in this order: raw < boiled < fermented < roasted samples. boiling and fermenting reduced the content of magnesium by 72.6 and 30.2%, respectively while boiling, fermenting and roasting increased potassium content by 124.5, 12.2 and 120.4%, respectively. generally, all the samples were found to be a good source of essential minerals and harmful heavy metals such as lead, chromium, arsenic and cadmium were not at detectable range of atomic absorption spectrophotometer. the amino acid profile revealed that amino acids in fermented sample were better concentrated than that of raw and other processed samples. the total essential amino acids (teaa) ranged from 28.63 g/100g crude protein in roasted sample to 34.79 g/100g crude protein in fermented sample. the limiting amino acid (laa) for all the samples was met + cys (tsaa).