Protein and hematological evaluations of infant formulated from cooking banana fruits (Musa spp, ABB genome) and fermented bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranean L. Verdc) seeds

Protein-energy malnutrition is regarded as one of the public health problems in developing countries as a result of poor feeding practices due to poverty. This study, therefore, aimed at evaluating nutritional quality of a potential weaning food formulated from locally available food materials. The cooking banana fruit (CB) and bambara groundnut seeds (BG) were purchased from local market in Akure, Ondo State, Nigeria. The CB and BG were processed into flours, mixed in ratios of 90:10, 80:20, 70:30 and 60:40 and subjected into proximate, sensory and biochemical analyses using standard procedures. Nutrend (a commercial formula) and ogi (corn gruel, a traditional weaning food) were used as control. The nutritient composition (g/100 g) of the food samples were ranged as follows: moisture 2.94-6.94, protein 7.02-16.0, ash 1.76-2.99, fat 0.76-8.45, fibre 1.52-3.75, carbohydrate 63.84-88.43 and energy 1569.8-1665.7 kcal. The biological value (BV), net protein retention (NPR), protein efficiency ratio (PER) and feed efficiency ratio (FER) of the experimental food samples were significantly (p<0.05) lower than nutrend, but higher than ogi. The haematological variables of rats fed with formulated food samples, commercial formula (nutrend) and traditional weaning food (ogi) were not significantly (p>0.05) influenced by the dietary treatment. However, the values obtained for red blood cell (RBC), white blood cell (WBC), pack cell volume (PCV) and erythrocyte sedimentation rate (ESR) were higher in the experimental food samples than the commercial food. The growth rate of animals fed with experimental food samples were lower than those fed with the nutrend, but higher than those fed with ogi. In conclusion, the nutritional quality of CB and fermented BG mix of 60:40 ratio was better than ogi; and comparable to the nutrend. This implies that it can be used to replace low quality traditional weaning food and the expensive commercial weaning formula.