DEVELOPMENT OF ANTILIPEMIC/ HYPOLIPIDEMIC SNACKS FROM SELECTED FRUITS FOR THE MANAGEMENT OF OBESITY
Obesity is gradually becoming an epidemic in Nigeria. Plants have been commonly used in the traditional management of obesity and development of functional foods from these plants will aid in its management considering that Nigeria is endowed with many tropical plants that are underutilized because of limited scientific information on safety and efficacy. The objective of this research is to develop antilipemic/ hypolipidemic snacks from coconut and pineapple shafts. Pineapple and coconut fruits were bought from local fruit vendors at Ikeja, Lagos, Nigeria. The fruits were dehulled/ peeled and endosperm chopped and milled with warring blender. The blended samples were sieved to yield fibre. The fibre was air dried and stored in air tight container for further analysis. Doughs were produced from the wheat and composites flours (5%, 10%, 15%, 20% and 30% fibre inclusions) which were baked into biscuits using FIIRO developed baking protocol. The composite and wheat flours as well as the developed snacks were subjected to proximate, qualitative and quantitative phytochemical analysis according to the methods described by AOAC (1997); and Boham and Kocipai (1994) respectively. Rheological properties of the flours were determined using a mixolab. Free radicals scavenging activities of the methanolic extracts of the flours were determined according to the method described by Ursini et al. (1994), and Oyaizu (1986). Sensory evaluation was eventually carried out on the developed snacks using a 10 man panelists.
Proximate analysis revealed an increasing fibre content with concomitant increased fibre inclusion while protein and carbohydrate contents reduced with increased fibre inclusion. Phytochemical screening showed the presence of saponin, alkaloid, flavonoid and steroids in the flours. All samples showed an increased antioxidant potential in a dose – dependent effect. The observed activity was dose dependent and compared favorably with the controls. Mixolab® analysis of the flours showed that the starch content retrograded with increase fibre inclusion while the gluten and amylase activity decreased with increase fibre inclusion. Sensory evaluation revealed that snacks prepared from wheat flours were significantly (p<0.05) preferred to that of the composites. These results show the antilipemic potentials of the developed composite flours as several studies have linked the studied phytochemicals, fibre and antioxidant to hypolipidemic activities.