African Journal of
Biotechnology

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Biotechnol.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1684-5315
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJB
  • Start Year: 2002
  • Published Articles: 12487

Full Length Research Paper

Volatile compounds of maari, a fermented product from baobab (Adansonia digitata L.) seeds

Charles Parkouda1*, Brehima Diawara1, Samuel Lowor2, Charles Diako3, Firibu Kwesi Saalia4, Nana T Annan, Jan S. Jensen5, Kwaku Tano-Debrah4 and Mogens Jakobsen6.
1Département Technologie Alimentaire/IRSAT/CNRST 03 BP 7047 Ouagadougou 03, Burkina Faso. 2Cocoa Research Institute of Ghana, Physiology/Biochemistry Division P.O. Box 8, Akim-Tafo, Ghana. 3Council for Scientific and Industrial Research, Food Research Institute, P.O. Box M-20, Accra, Ghana. 4Department of Nutrition and Food Science, University of Ghana, Legon, Accra, Ghana 5University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Science, Forest and Landscape, DK-2970, Hørsholm, Denmark. 6University of Copenhagen, Faculty of Life Science, Centre for Advance Food Studies, Department of Food Science, Rolighedsvej 30 DK 1958 Frederiksberg C, Denmark.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 01 April 2011
  •  Published: 16 May 2011

Abstract

The volatile compounds associated with baobab seeds fermentation for Maari production were extracted and analysed by Likens-Nickerson simultaneous steam distillation-extraction method and gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS), respectively. Furthermore, the titratable acidity, tannin content and proximate composition were evaluated. A total of 96 compounds were identified with esters, acids, alcohols and ketones being quantitatively the major groups. Fermentation led to an increase in the concentration of total volatile compounds from 121.6 in unfermented cooked seeds to 809.1 mg kg-1 in the fermented product. Drying resulted in a significant loss of up to 80.7% of the total volatiles.

 

Key words: Volatile compounds, maari, baobab, fermentation.