Plant Foods for Human Nutrition 41: 203-212, 1991.

203
9 1991 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.

Effect of soaking, sprouting, fermentation and cooking on

nutrient composition and some anti-nutritional factors of
sorghum (Guinesia) seeds

I K E M E F U N A C. OBIZOBA & J.V. ATII

Department of Home Science and Nutrition, University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Nigeria

Received 15 August, 1990; accepted with minor revisions 1 November, 1990

Key words:processing methods, nutrient composition, antinutritional factors, sorghum seeds

Abstract. This study was designed to determine the effectof soaking, sprouting, fermentation
and cooking on nutrient composition and some antinutritional factors of sorghum seeds
(guineesia). Standard assay procedures were adopted to resolve both the nutrients and the
antinutritional factors content of the products. Combination of cooking and fermentation
improved the nutrient quality and drastically reduced the antinutritional factors to safe levels
much greater than any of the other processing methods tested.

Introduction

Sorghum is an important staple in the diets of northern Nigeria, where it is

a principal food crop [1]. Sorghum is used to prepare various dishes. Whole
grains can be soaked, milled and/or fermented to make ogi (akamu). It can
be sprouted, malted and milled to propare traditional alcoholic beverage
(pito and 'burukutu'). The dry whole grain can be roasted as popcorn, or
milled as a snack (adun, mumu); milled directly to provide flour and grits
for solid paste (tuwo), and breakfast cereal (fura) [2, 3, 4]. Dry sorghum
grains contain tannins and small cyanide. The brown type is much more in
use in Nigeria. Wand and Fields [5] reported that sprouts dried at 50 ~ had
increased relative nutritive values. It increased lysine, methionine, and
tryptophan when compared to ungerminated seeds. Production of sorghum
sprouts from seeds require only 3-5 d with rudimentary equipment.
Wang and Fields [5] recommended germination of sorghum seed in the
home as a means of producing a more nutritious food ingredient. This
practice would be valuable in developing countries like Nigeria. Panasuik and
Bills [6] reported that dry sorghum seeds contained only traces (1 or 2 ppm
to 29 ppm) of potential hydrocyanic acid (HCN) that could be generated as
free H C N by digestion and steam distillation. Sprouts of the same seeds
204

grown for 3 d in the dark at 30 ~ contained from 258-1030ppm potential

HCN relative to the weight of the ungerminated dry seed. Drying at 50 ~
and grinding of sprouts to produce a meal did not reduce the potential HCN
content. They cautioned that consumption of sorghum sprouts or products
made from them may be hazardous. The 61.3 mg HCN they obtained from
sprouts grown from 100 g of seed exceeds the average fatal dose for an adult.
The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of soaking,
sprouting, fermentation and cooking on nutrient composition and some
antinutritional factors of sorghum. The procedures for processing mimic
those used in northern Nigeria for producing sorghum based alcoholic
beverages (pito and burukutu) and soured non-alcoholic beverage (kunu).

Materials and methods

Brown sorghum seeds mostly used for various dishes in northern Nigeria
were purchased from local retailers. The seeds were cleaned and divided into
seven equal portions. One portion was whole, unsoaked and unsprouted.
This served as control. Six portions were soaked separately. Five out of the
six soaked seeds were sprouted for 24, 36, 48, 72 and 96 h. After sprouting
the control and the sprouted grains were dried to 96% dry matter and
hammer-milled separately into a fine powder. The flours were divided into
three parts. One part (raw) was mixed with cold water, in a 1:4 (W]V) and
allowed to ferment for 36h by the organisms in the paste. The second
portion was boiled for 30 min. in the same volume of water ratio as the first
to gelatinize. The gelatinized product was cooled in a basin of cold water to
prevent haze formation. It was fermented for 36 h. The third portion was set
aside to determine various nutrients and antinutritional factors. The first
one (raw) after fermentation was dried for 18 h in an air oven at 55 ~ to
96% dry matter; remilled into a fine flour, packed in polythene bags; and
kept until analysed.

Laboratory Analysis

The estimation of protein, ash, soluble sugar, starch, moisture and tannins
were according to the standard procedures of AOAC [7]. Lipid was deter-
mined by exhaustively extracting known weight with petroleum ether (BP
40-60 ~ using Tecator Soxtec apparatus according to the manufacturer's
instructions. Cyanide was determined by the method of Panasuik and Bills [6].
 205

Results and discussion

The nutrient composition, tannins and cyanide levels of unsprouted

(control) soaked and sprouted brown sorghum seeds are shown in Table 1.
Tannins levels varied. The variations were a function of treatment. Soaking
and sprouting for 24 h caused about 33% decrease. After 24 h, there was a
steady decrease. The greatest decrease occurred at 96 h and the decrease was
about 61%. The decreases confirm the views of Chavan et al. [8] who
observed that decreases in tannins was a function of sprouting periods.
Soaking reduced HCN drastically as compared with the control (12-3 ppm).
Sprouting caused increases. The greatest increase occurred at 72 h. The
increases might be due to increased enzyme activity inherent in sprouting
seeds as observed by Panasuik and Bills [6] in sorghum, Gorz et al. [9]; Oke.
[10, 11] in immature plants. Endogenous and autolytic enzymes are inactive
[6] but are activated by hydrolysis through germination acid or water. The
HCN produced during hydrolysis is water soluble and this accounts for the
decreases in cyanide during soaking.
Soaking had little or no effect on starch levels. Sprouting caused steady
decreases as compared to the control. The greatest decreases occurred at
24 h (46%). The decreases might be due to breakdown of starch reserves to
simpler absorbable sugars to nourish the developing embryo [12, 13]. Starch
is degraded to reducing sugars by amylolytic enzymes inherent in sprouting
seeds.
Both soaking and sprouting caused increases in reducing sugars. Sprout-
ing caused much greater increases as compared to the control. The 24 and
36 h seeds had the greatest increases. It is known that amylolytic enzymes
hydrolyze starch and oligosaccharides to simpler free soluble sugars during
sprouting. Chavan et al. [8] reported a 10-fold increase in some reducing
sugars and disappearance of galacto-oligosaccharides during sprouting.
The % lipid levels varied. Soaking and sprouting for 36, 72 and 96h
increased lipid values more than 21 times that of the control. Soaking alone
caused a 4-fold increase (3 vs 12%). The increase might be due to synthesis
of fatty acids. This observation confirms that of Harwood and Stumpt [14]
who observed that synthesis of fatty acids is initiated only when the weight
of the seed is about 185% of its original weight. This demonstrates that
water was needed to provide osmotic medium for the synthetase reaction to
proceed.
Soaking decreased protein when compared to that of the control (7 vs 6.1%).
The decrease might be due to loss of soluble protein and other nitrogenous
constituents in soaking water. Wu and Wall [15] had observed such a decrease
in triticale grains soaked for 24 h. Sprouting caused increases in protein, the
206

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values doubled at 36 and 96 h. The 48 and 72 h seeds had lower values that
were higher than those of the control and soaked seeds. The increases in
protein might be attributed to release of much greater free amino acids for
synthesis of protein for the embryo due to breakdown of tannin-protein
complexes [8, 16, 17, 15].
The % moisture was a function of treatment and protein. Soaking caused
increases but not as much as sprouting. The moisture content of the 24 and
72 h seeds were higher than for both the control and other treatments.
Different factors affect moisture of food products. Compositional diffrences
of nutrients are reported to be due in many instances to factors other than
differences in the moisture level. Moisture content depends on the types and
amount of proteins. The moisture values in this present study might have
been by the same factors. The changes in % moisture might be attributed to
treatments which caused changes in lipids and other nutrients.
Soaking and sprouting decreased ash levels differently. Soaking caused
30% and sprouting for 36 h 44% decrease.
Table 2 presents nutrient composition, tannin and cyanide of raw sorghum
seeds fermented for 36 h after germination. Both soaking and fermentation
decreased tannins. The decrease was much greater for fermented seeds than
for the control and soaked seeds. The lowest value for the 96 h seeds was
because of synergistic effect of sprouting and fermentation. These processes
produce enzymes that breakdown complexes to release free tannins. The free
tannins leached out.
Fermentation reduced cyanide in soaked seeds. It caused progressive
increases in sprouted seeds (16.0-78ppm) with a slight decrease at 96h.
Despite the decreases the value was much higher than the normal (29 ppm).
The lower values for fermented products as compared to sprouted (Table 1)
suggests that synergistic effect of sprouting and fermentation decreased the
activity of hydrolytic enzymes. The increases in cyanide in raw fermented
products demonstrate that the endogenous autolytic enzymes remained
active. The optimum activity was at 72h and lesser active beyond 72 h.
Panasuik and Bills [6] observed that the endogenous autolytic enzymes
responsible for hydrolysis of cyanogenic glycosides may remain partially
active even in the dry products. They could be fully activated on rehydration
as in fermentation.
Soaked seeds had slight decrease in starch. Sprouting for 36 and 96 h
caused the greatest decrease. The decreases might be due to (a) reduced
tannins by amylolytic enzymes and (b) microbial enzyme hydrolysis [18, 19].
Fermentation influenced the levels of reducing sugars in sprouted seeds.
The reverse was true for the soaked seeds. The levels doubled after 24 h and
peaked at 36 and 48 h. The increases were because of increased activity of
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 209

natural microbial enzymes in the products to provide carbon skeleton for

synthesis of other nutrients [20].
Fermentation caused increases in lipids for both soaked and sprouted
seeds. The increases were more than 2-fold in soaked and 48-96 h seeds. The
cause of the increases might be due to increased activity of lipolytic enzymes
which produced more free fatty acids which imparted their flavour to the
products. A similar observation was reported by Kazanas and Fields [20].
Fermentation caused increases in % protein in both soaked and sprouted
seeds. The 36 and 48 h seed had higher values. The higher values might be
due to degradation of protein to peptides by the synergestic effect of
enzymes during germination and fermentation.
The % moisture followed the same trend as the protein. The 36 h seed had
the highest protein and moisture. The type and amount of protein in the
food were a function of % moisture content.
The % ash increased. The 72 and 96 h seeds had the highest value and this
might be due to treatment and loss of dry matter. Rao and Deosthale [21]
observed increased vegetative part of plant due to hydrolysis of dry matter.
Table 3 presents nutrient composition, tannins and cyanide levels of
unsprouted and sprouted brown sorghum seeds cooked for 30min and
fermented for 36 h by natural organisms of the products. Both cooking and
fermentation synergistically reduced tannins. The 72 and 96 seed had the
least values than for others except for the soaked. This might be due to
activity of fermentation organisms and protein denaturation due to cooking.
Cooking and fermentation broke down tannin-enzyme and protein-tannin
complexes and released free tannins which subsequently leached out of the
products.
Cooking and fermentation reduced cyanide in soaked seeds to safe levels.
There were increases in cyanide for all seeds. The greatest increases occurred
at 48 and 96 h. The increases were below normal level (29 ppm) as previously
reported [6, 10, 11]. The traces of cyanide in soaked product were because
cooking increased dissociation of the gas (HCN). The HCN is soluble in
soaking water as such was leached out into the atmosphere.
Cooking and fermentation caused decreases in starch regardless of treat-
ments. The greatest decreases occurred at 48 and 72 h. The decreases were
because of low levels of tannins and increased degradation of gelatinized
starch granules to much more soluble and easy to digest sugars.
The reducing sugar levels were a function of that of starch. The lower the
starch concentration, the higher were the levels of available sugar. The 36
and 48 h seeds produced much higher soluble sugar. The increases were
because of (a) improved starch quality due to cooking and (b) increased
microflora enzymes breakdown of starch to simpler absorbable sugars.
210

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Heerden and Glennie [22] had observed the same. They reported that the
adequacy of sorghum beer as a quick source of energy was due to high levels
of absorbable sugars.
Both cooking and fermentation lowered lipids except for the 96 h seeds.
The decreases were much higher for the soaked, 24 and 36 h products. The
decreases might be due to breakdown of lipids to fatty acids during fer-
mentation [23]. These free fatty acids served as sources of flavour of the
products.
The levels of protein for the sprouted products were higher than the
soaked product due to treatments. The greatest protein levels occurred at 36
and 96 h. This was because of low tannin levels caused by fermentation
proteolytic enzymes and protein denaturation due to cooking.
Cooking and fermentation had little effect on moisture of both treat-
ments. There were decreases in % moisture of the 36 and 72 h products. The
synergistic action of cooking and fermenttion increased ash values. The
increases might be attributed to loss of vegetative part of the seeds (hulls)
which led to reduced fibre and increased ash.
Soaking, sprouting, cooking and fermentation appeared to have beneficial
effect as methods of processing. Combinations of cooking and fermentation
improved the nutrient quality and reduced the antinutritional factors
inherent in sprouted cereal products to safe levels much greater than any of
the other processing methods tested.

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