Chemical and Functional Properties and Performance of Blends of Water Yam (Dioscorea Alata) and Soybean (Glycine Max) Flours for Water Yam Ball (Ojojo) Preparation

摘要

The performance of blends of water yam (Dioscorea alata) and Soybeans (Glycine max) flours for water yam ball preparation was investigated. Water yam and soybeans were processed into flours and 100% water yam flour served as the control sample. However, water yam ball was produced using water yam flour and soybeans flour which were blended at different ratio (ie 100%:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50). The proximate analysis and functional properties of the water yam-soybean flour were determined. The sensory evaluation showed that samples 90:10, 80:20 and 70:30 were the most acceptable because they contained little quantity of soy bean flour. Experimental studies were conducted using 30 albino rats for 21 days. The rats were fed with each of the samples while those fed with the basal diet served as the control. This study showed that the rats fed with the sample 50:50 increased massively in size more than those fed with the other samples. Conclusively, all the samples had no adverse effects on the rats.