ABSTRACT

The study was designed to evaluate the effect of oven drying temperature in Preserving African Breadfruit (Trecuila africana). African breadfruit was sorted out, washed with clean water, parboiled for three mins to enable easy dehulling of the seed, dehulled using manual disc attraction mill, winowed and cleaned. The African breadfruit was subjected to different rates of drying temperature (50°c, 60°c and 70°c). Proximate, mineral, phytochemicals and sensory evaluation of the raw and dried samples was estimated using the standard assay method. The sample were analysed descriptive statistics using SPSS version 14 to determine the percentages (%), mean, standard deviation (SD) and least square deviation (LSD). The result of the proximate shows that moisture content ranged from 10.67% to 28.57%, protein ranged from 12.24% to 17.75%, crude fiber ranged from 1.72% to 2.06%, fat ranged from 4.63% to 5.27% and carbohydrate ranged from 59.67% to 62.23%. The result of the mineral composition shows that calcium ranged from 148mg/100g to 156.72mg/100g, magnesium ranged from 78.60mg/100g to 89.50mg/100g, phosphorus ranged from 58.05mg/100g to 69.24mg/100g, potassium ranged from 242.82mg/100g to 252.66mg/100g, sodium ranged from 45.55mg/100g to 62.37mg/100g and iron ranged from 1.60mg/100g to 2.30mg/100g. The result of the phytochemical  composition shows that tannin ranged from 0.51mg/100g to 0.81mg/100, Alkaloid ranged from 0.65mg/100g to 1.07mg/100g, oxalate ranged from 0.77mg/100g to 1.59mg/100g, hydrogen cyanide ranged from 0.18mg/100g to 0.49mg/100g, Phytate ranged from 0.90mg/100g to 1.42mgmg/100g and Saponin  ranged from 0.60mg/100g to 0.84mg/100g. The sensory evaluation shows that breadfruit food products were acceptable in terms of colour, taste, appearance, aroma and general acceptability. Colour was the most acceptable in sample AOA and least acceptable in sample BOB. Taste was most acceptable in sample BOB and least acceptable in sample COC and DOD. Appearance was the most acceptable in sample BOB and least acceptable in sample DOD. Aroma was the most acceptable in sample COC and least acceptable in sample AOA. General acceptability shows that sample BOB was most generally accepted by the panelists while sample COC was least acceptable. However there was significant difference (p