Softening effect of Ikpiru and Yanyanku, two traditional additives used for the fermentation of African Locust Bean (Parkia biglobosa) seeds in Benin

Ikpiru and Yanyanku are two additives used for the traditional alkaline fermentation of African locust bean (Parkia biglobosa. Benth) to produce food condiments in Benin. In this study, African locust beans (Parkia biglobosa. Benth) were fermented with or without Ikpiru and Yanyanku to assess the factors explaining the softening role of these additives during the fermentation process. Changes in microbial population, chemical components and texture parameters of the fermented cotyledons were determined during the fermentation process. Bacillus spp. predominated during the fermentation, with an upward trend. The use of Yanyanku or Ikpiru seems to increase Bacillus count during the earlier stage (between 0 and 18 hours) of fermentation, since the variations were 35% and 43% (growth rate of 0.13 and 0.16 Log10 h-1) for trial with Yanyanku and Ikpiru respectively, versus 6% (0.02 Log10 h-1) for the control. Despite this initial gap, the final count (after 48 h) did not show any significant difference between the control and samples with additives. Compressing forces were significantly lower between 12 to 24 h for cotyledons fermented with additives than for the control, suggesting a rapid disintegration, i.e., the softening effect of Yanyanku and Ikpiru during the fermentation of African locust bean seeds. No significant difference (p > 0.05) was observed between proximate composition of the samples fermented without additives and those fermented with additives.Keywords: Fermentation, Bacillus, softening effect, softenin

Analyse des performances techniques des clarificateurs et déshydrateurs d'huile de palme au Bénin

Analysis of the Technical Performances of Clarifiers and Palm Oil Dehydrators in Benin. Clarification and dehydration are two important operations in the palm fruit processing technology. Inefficient clarification and a poor dehydration can lead to significant losses of palm oil and damage of organoleptic and nutritive qualities. In Benin, palm oil processors use artisanal and semi-artisanal boilers, dehydrators, and clarifier-dehydrators. The aim of this study is to evaluate the technical performances of these equipments. The results showed that the artisanal, semi-artisanal boilers and clarifier-dehydrators had a hourly throughput respectively of 23.33 kg/h; 216.66 and 327 kg/h with palm variety Tenera. The moisture contain of the palm oil obtained with these equipments were respectively 1.2%; 1.05 and 1.3%. The clarification yields were respectively 92.9%; 82.4% and 79.8%. The artisanal, semi-artisanal dehydrator and clarifier-dehydrator reduced the moisture content of the boiler oil by nearly 3 to 4 times. However, the threshold of 0.1%, adopted for international standard offering good conservation of oil, was not reached in the majority of cases. To achieve this, the oil should be heated to a temperature of 128 °C

Development and bioefficacy study of plant-based proteins diets for juvenile African catfish

Objectives: The aim of this study is to improve the growth performance of the juvenile catfish (Clarias gariepinus) by using feed formula derived from local feed ingredients.Methodology and results: Three diets with formulas differing in the feed ingredients and biological process were tested. These were: diet 1 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal), diet 2 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal, Corn malt meal) and diet 3 (Soybean meal, Fish meal, Moringa leaf meal, Roasted corn meal, Corn malt meal, Kpètè-kpètè (traditional starter of opaque African beer). Coppens® is an imported efficient feed that was used as control. The fish were fed twice daily for a rearing period of 35 days in a randomized tree blocks. Results of the study showed an overall good survival rate and growth performance of the fish. All the parameters assessed showed significant better values in fish fed with control diet than formulated diets. However, there was no significant difference between values survival rate, weight gain, specific growth rate (SGR), feed conversion ratio (FCR) and protein efficiency ratio (PER) of the formulated diets.Conclusions and application of results: Results indicated that all the three diets can be used as a fishmeal but their efficiency still needs to be improved. Though with low crude protein ratio (p˂0.05), diet 3 exhibits the same results as the other diets probably because it is fermented and incorporated with malted corn grain. Incorporation of malted cereal flour in fish feeds can improve their efficiency.Keywords: Clarias gariepinus, lactic acids fermentation, malting, plant protei