A Comparative Study on the Viscoelastic Properties of Wheat, Maize and Cassava Flours as Affected by Some Leguminous Seed Flours

The effects of some leguminous seed flour (LSF) on the viscoelastic properties of wheat, maize and cassava flours were investigated. The aim of the work was to evaluate the effect of the LSF on the pasting characteristics of the flours. There were significant differences in the proximate composition of the flours used in this study. Three LSF namely Brachystegia eurycoma, Detarium microcarpum, and Mucuna sloanei flours were used in this study. The LSF were added differently at 0 and 2% to wheat, maize and cassava flours on dry weight bases, the 0% addition served as the control. The viscoelastic properties were determined using Rapid Visco Analyser (RVA). The results showed that the LSF significantly affected the pasting properties of the wheat, maize and cassava flours. The LSF significantly increased (p>0.05) the breakdown, final, trough and peak viscosities of the wheat and maize flours. However, the LSF significantly (p>0.05) reduced the peak, breakdown and setback viscosities of cassava flour compared to the control.

The influence of various leguminous seed diets on carcass and meat quality of fattening pigs

Two trials were designed to determine the quality of pig carcasses, chemical composition and physical indicators of meat and fatty acid composition of backfat. Growing pigs were offered adequate diets containing field beans (20–25%), sweet lupines (15–20%) or extruded soybeans (18–15.4%) instead of soybean or sunflower oil meal (control). The weight and length of the carcass, dressing percentage, weight of ham, chemical composition and physical indicators of meat of pigs fed diets with different leguminous seeds did not differ significantly from those of pigs fed the control diet. Pigs fed diets containing field beans had 5.7–8.2 mm lower backfat thickness, while pigs fed extruded soybeans had 6.6–7.9% smaller loin lean area and 4.57% lower content of oleic acid in the backfat, but the content of linoleic acid was 5.11% higher.  

Antioxidative Activity of Leguminous Seed Extracts Evaluated by Chemiluminescence Methods

The antioxidant properties of extracts from seeds of white bean, pea, lentil, everlasting pea, faba bean, and broad bean were investigated by enhanced chemiluminescence (ECL) and photochemiluminescence (PCL) methods. All extracts exhibited antioxidative activity. The antioxidative efficacy of the extracts investigated varied markedly and did not dependent upon their content of phenolic compounds. Results of TLC analysis of the extracts indicated that the antioxidant activity originated from several phenolic compounds, partly similar in their polarity

Leguminous Seed Glycoproteins That Interact With Concanavalin A

Material that interacts with concanavalin A has been purified from seed extracts of 18 species (16 legumes, Coffea arabica and Lolium perenne) by Con A-Sepharose chromatography. When examined by sodium dodecyl sulphate-polyacrylamide disc gel electrophoresis, many of the preparations showed a number of protein-staining components. All the preparations gave a single precipitation line against Cunalialia ensiformis crude extract on gel diffusion plates. Some of the con A-interacting preparations were shown to possess haemagglutination activity. The Arachis hypogaea (peanut) preparation contains one major glycoprotein of molecular weight 69 000, which was further purified and analysed. The purified glycoprotein contains 12% carbohydrate, galactose being the major sugar with minor amounts of mannose and xylose present.