PHYTOCHEMICALS, SELECTED MINERAL ELEMENTS AND VITAMINS CONSTITUENTS OF AFRAMOMUM SCEPTRUM SEEDS AND INFLUENCE OF PROCESSING AND STORAGE

Journal: Acta Chemica Malaysia (ACMY)
Author: Dibie Nduka Edward and Dibie Chukwudumebi Esther
ISSN: 2576-6732
e-ISSN: 2576-6724

This is an open access journal distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License CC BY 4.0, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

DOI: 10.26480/acmy.02.2025.38.44

Aframomum sceptrum Seeds used as additives in many foods and enthnomedicinal remedies, are characterized by unstandardized postharvest handling methods. Additionally, their compositional chemistry are not fully investigated. Also, the influence of processing and storage on the compositional chemistry of Aframomum sceptrum Seeds are less investigated. This work investigated Aframomum sceptrum Seeds obtained from markets in Benin City, Edo State, for tannins, saponins, cyanogenic glycosides, alkaloids, thiamine, riboflavin, Potassium (K), Calcium (Ca), Magnesium (Mg), Chromium (Cr) and Selenium (Se). The influence of sun drying, grinding and storage in the open laboratory and at water activities (aw) of 0.23, 0.52, and 0.92, on the examined parameters were also determined. All investigations were carried out in accordance with standard methods. In raw Aframomum sceptrum Seeds the results were cyanogenic glycosides (0.18±0.04mg/g); saponins (8.174±1.21mg/g); tannins (2.81±0.62mg/g); alkaloids (2.92±0.35mg/g); thiamine (9.980±0.305ppm); riboflavin (0.625±0.031ppm). The range of values obtained for the mineral elements were K (3,850±10.968 – 4,915.783±15.912) mg/kg; Ca (316.677±11.189 – 386.106±5.520) mg/kg; Mg (221.843±5.691 – 253.903±21.004) mg/kg; Cr (1.257±0.045 – 1.457±0.416) mg/kg and Se (0.303±0.017 – 0.421±0.089) mg/kg. Processing and storage positively influenced the values of the phytochemicals, but resulted in decrease in thiamine and riboflavin. Statistically, the reported storage changes in phytochemicals were at P<0.05 significant. Additionally, at P<0.05 the decreases in thiamine and riboflavin were statistically significant. These findings would be relevant in the formulation of standard methods for the handling of Aframomum sceptrum Seeds.