No abstract

This study was carried out to evaluate the mineral composition and vitamin content of sorghum and pigeon pea composite flours. Flours were produced from sorghum and pigeon pea seeds. The composite flours were mixed homogenously. Six different blends were formulated in the following ratios as 100:0, 90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40 and 50:50 of sorghum and pigeon pea flours respectively, where 100% sorghum flour served as control. The mineral and vitamin composition of the blends were determined using standard methods. The mineral composition result showed significant (p<0.05) increase in potassium (315.10 – 635.0 mg/100 g), magnesium (90.01- 94.52 mg/100 g), calcium (20.10 – 52.11 mg/100 g), zinc (2.03 – 2.30 mg/100 g), iron (3.01 – 5.10 mg/100 g) and sodium (4.80 – 7.82 mg/100 g), and significant (p<0.05) reduction in phosphorus (300.20 - 264.15 mg/100 g), with the increased supplementation of pigeon pea flour to sorghum flour in the blends. The vitamin content result recorded significant (p<0.05) increase in niacin (2.60-2.91 mg/100 g), riboflavin (0.07-0.13 mg/100 g), thiamin (0.31-0.43 mg/100 g), ascorbic acid (29.31-34.56 mg/100 g), and decrease in pyridoxine (0.40-0.21 mg/100 g) and alpha-tocopherol (0.61-0.26 mg/100 g), with increased level of inclusion of pigeon pea flour to the blends. This study showed that supplementing sorghum flour with pigeon pea flour produced blends with improved micronutrients which can find use in ameliorating the prevalence of micronutrients deficiencies in developing countries.