Physicochemical, Nutritional and Functional Properties of the Epicarp, Flesh and Pitted Sample of Doum Fruit (Hyphaene Thebaica)

Waleed Aboshora^{1, 2}, Zhang Lianfu^{1, 3,} , Mohammed Dahir¹, Mohammed A.A Gasmalla¹, Abubakr Musa¹, Elshareif Omer¹ and Mallika Thapa¹

¹State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

²National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China
Department of Food Processing, Faculty of Engineering, University of Elemam Elmahadi, P. O. Box 209, Kosti, Sudan

³National Engineering Research Center for Functional Food, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China
School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, 214122, China

Cite this paper:
Waleed Aboshora, Zhang Lianfu, Mohammed Dahir, Mohammed A.A Gasmalla, Abubakr Musa, Elshareif Omer and Mallika Thapa. Physicochemical, Nutritional and Functional Properties of the Epicarp, Flesh and Pitted Sample of Doum Fruit (Hyphaene Thebaica). Journal of Food and Nutrition Research. 2014; 2(4):180-186. doi: 10.12691/jfnr-2-4-8

Abstract

In this study, the physicochemical, nutritional and functional properties of epicarp, flesh and pitted samples of doum fruit (Hyphaene thebaica) were assessed. Results on carbohydrate content revealed that the flesh, pitted fruit and epicarp samples contained 72.50%, 65.61% and 44.17% respectively. Total fiber was highly concentrated in the epicarp accounting for more than 40%. It was further revealed that the fruit contained substantial amounts of essential minerals as follows: sodium 364.7 mg/100 g, calcium 284 mg/100 g and iron 12.18 mg/100 g in the epicarp while the following were contained in the flesh part of the fruit: potassium 2947.6 mg/100 g, magnesium 185.62 mg/100 g and phosphorus 154.6 mg/100 g. Vitamin content was determined by RP-HPLC and the results showed that doum fruit is a good source of vitamin B-complex which was found it at high portion in epicarp with the variance of 3.6 mg/100 g in niacin (B3) content to 13.6 mg/100 g in pyridoxine (B6) content. Monosaccharide content was determined by using HPAEC-PAD and the results showed that the flesh of the doum fruit is a good source of glucose and fructose. There was a significant difference in color parameters between samples. Bulk density results were 0.73, 0.75 and 0.95 mg/ml for epicarp, pitted fruit and flesh respectively. It can be concluded that the doum fruit contained essential nutrients and functional properties which can be exploited for various useful applications.

Keywords:
doum fruit (Hyphaene thebaica) epicarp flesh pitted fruit Physicochemical nutritional functional properties

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

References:

[1]	Fletcher, R. (1997). Listing of useful plants of the world. Australian New crops http://www.newcrops.uq.edu.au/listing/hyphaenethebaica
[2]	Orwa, C., Mutua, A., Kindt, R., Jamnadass, R., Simons, A. (2009). “Agroforestree database: a tree reference and selection guide version 4.0”. Url: http://www.Worldagroforestry.org/af/treedb/ (Accessed on 15 February, 2011).
[3]	Doren, E. T. (1997). Vegetable ivory and other palm nuts/seeds as an art/craft medium. Journal of the International Palm Society (renamed as Palms since 1999), 41 (4), 18-25.
[4]	Kamis, A. B., Modu, S., Zanna, H., & Oniyangi, T. A. (2003). Preliminary biochemical and haematological effects of aqueous suspension of pulp of hyphaene thebaica (l) mart in rats. Biokemistri. 13 (1): 1-7.
[5]	Hsu, B., Coupar, I. M., Ng, K. (2006). Antioxidant activity of hot water extracts from the fruit of the Doum palm, (Hyphaene thebaica) Food Chemistry, 98 (2), 317-328.
[6]	Faten, M. A. E. (2009). Antioxidant and anticancer activities of doum fruit extract (Hyphaene thebaica). African Journal of Pure and Applied Chemistry, 3 (10), 197-201.
[7]	Carter. J (1993). Dietary fiber guide. Cereal Foods World, 38 (10): 755-759.
[8]	Dosurnu, O.O., Nwosu, F.O, Nwogu, C.D (2006). Antimicrobial studies and Phtochemical Screening of extracts of Hyphaene thebaica (Linn) Mart fruits. International Journal of Tropical Medicine 1 (4): 186-189.
[9]	Mason, J. B. (2007). Vitamins, trace minerals, and other micronutrients. Goldman L, Ausiello D. Cecil Textbook of Medicine, 225, p (e 225-1).
[10]	Latham, M. C. (1997). Human nutrition in the developing world (No. 29). Food & Agriculture Org.
[11]	Nur Dirim, S. (2012). Determination of the effect of freeze drying process on the production of pumpkin (Cucurbita moschata) puree powder and the powder properties. GIDA/ The Journal of FOOD, 37 (4).
[12]	Association of Official Analytical Chemists International. Official Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists International 17th edn. (2000). Association of Official Analytical Chemists International, Arlington, VA, USA.
[13]	Pereira, J. A., Oliveira, I., Sousa, A., Ferreira, I. C., Bento, A., Estevinho, L. (2008) Bioactive properties and chemical composition of six walnut (Juglans regiaL.) cultivars. Food Chem Toxicol 46: 2103-2111.
[14]	AOAC (1995). Official Methods of Analysis of the AOAC international, 16th ed. Method 970.12. Association of Official Analytical Chemists International. Washington, DC, USA.
[15]	Ranganna S. (1986). Handbook of Analysis and Quality Control for Fruit and Vegetable Products. Tata McGraw-Hill Publishing Company, New Delhi, India. pp. 124-125.
[16]	Papadoyannis, I. N., Tsioni, G. K., Samanidou, V. F. (1997). Simultaneous determination of nine water and fat soluble vitamins after SPE separation and RP-HPLC analysis in pharmaceutical preparations and biological fluids. Journal of liquid chromatography & related technologies, 20 (19), 3203-3231.
[17]	Mopper, K.., Schultz, C. A., Chevolot, L., Germain, C., Revuelta, R., Dawson, R. (1992). Determination of sugars in unconcentrated seawater and other natural waters by liquid chromatography and pulsed amperometric detection. Environmental science & technology, 26 (1), 133-138.
[18]	Kaur, M., Kaushal, P., & Sandhu, K. S. Studies on physicochemical and pasting properties of Taro (Colocasia esculenta L.) flour in comparison with a cereal, tuber and legume flour. Journal of Food Science and Technology. 2013; 50 (1): 94-100.
[19]	Onwuka, G. I. (2005). Food analysis and instrumentation: theory and practice. Naphathali prints, Nigeria, 95-96.
[20]	Nwosu, F. O.*, Dosumu, O. O., Okocha, J. O. C. (2008). The potential of Terminalia catappa (Almond) and Hyphaene thebaica (Dum palm) fruits as raw materials for livestock feed. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 7 (24), pp. 4576-4580.
[21]	Hoebeke, P. 1989. The doum palm (Hyphaene compressa) as biological resource in Turkana District, Kenya. M.Sc. thesis, University of Trondheim, Norway.
[22]	Bonde, S. D., Agate, V. V., Kulkarni, D. K. (1990). Nutritional composition of the fruits of doum palms (Hyphaene) from the west coast of India. Principes, 34 (1), 21-23.
[23]	Coimbra, M. C., Jorge, N. (2011). Proximate composition of guariroba (Syagrus oleracea), jerivá (Syagrus romanzoffiana) and macaúba (Acrocomia aculeata) palm fruits, Food Research International (44) 2139-2142.
[24]	Aremu, M. O., Olaofe, O., Akintayo, T. E. (2006). A comparative study on the chemical and amino acid composition of some Nigerian under-utilized legume flours. Pak. J. Nutr., 5: 34-38.
[25]	Nieman, D. C. Butterworth DE, Nieman CN (1992). Nutrition, Wmc Brown Publishers. Dubugye, USA, 237-312.
[26]	Durlach J. (1988). Magnesium in clinical practice. Libbey Eurotext, London, Paris. p. 360.
[27]	Trumbo, P., Yates, A. A., Schlicker, S., & Poos, M. (2001). Dietary reference intakes: vitamin A, vitamin K, arsenic, boron, chromium, copper, iodine, iron, manganese, molybdenum, nickel, silicon, vanadium, and zinc. Journal of the American Dietetic Association, 101 (3), 294-301.
[28]	Riordan, H. D., Mikirova, N., Taylor, P. R., Feldkamp, C. A., Casciari, J. J. (2012). The Effects of a Primary Nutritional Deficiency (Vitamin B Study). Food & Nutrition Sciences, 3 (9).
[29]	Rucker, R., Suttie, J., McCormick, D., Machlin, L. (2001): Handbook of Vitamins, 3rd Edition, New York: Marcel Dekker.
[30]	McCormick D. B. (1999). “Modern Nutrition in Health and Disease,” ed. By Shils M. E., Olson J. A., Shike M., Ross A. C., Williams and Wilkins Press, Baltimore, pp. 391-399.
[31]	Bender, D. A. (2003). Nutritional biochemistry of the vitamins. Cambridge university press.
[32]	Njintang, Y. N., Scher, J., Mbofung, C. M. F. (2008). Physicochemical, thermal properties and micro structure of six varieties of taro (Colocasia esculentaL. Schott) flours and starches. Journal of Food Engineering 86 (2): 294-305.
[33]	Singh N., Kaur M., Sandhu, K.S,and Guraya, H.S. (2004). Physicochemical, thermal, morphological and pasting properties of starches from some Indian black gram (Phaseolus mungoL.) cultivars. Starch- Stärke, 56 (11), 535-544.