ABSTRACT

Complementary food was produced by different preliminary methods to generate flour from blends of orange fleshed sweet potato (/pomoea batatas), soybean (Glycine max), sorghum (Sorghum bicolour) and moringa leave (MoringaOleifera) flour. Three samplesof complementary foods were formulated by mixing the flours (Orange fleshed sweet potato, soybean, sorghum and moringa leave) at different proportion of (60:22:15:3, 50:28:20:2, 40:34:25:1) respectively. They were subjected to proximate, functional, vitamins, mineral, rat bioassay, and microbial analysis. The complementary foodswere prepared in porridge form and fed to 20 rats along with Nestle Cerelac as control to evaluate Protein energy malnutrition and micro-nutrients. Results of the proximate composition revealed: moisture (4.8-6.90%), protein (16.39-22.98%), fat ( 4.80-6.70%), ash (2.0-2.50%), crude fiber (2.50-3.0% ), carbohydrate (57.93-69.51 % ) and energy (350.60-366. 10Kcal). Functional properties were: bulk density (0.69- 0.1 7g/ml), water absorption capacity ( 177.50-180.00g/ml), oil absorption capacity ( 130- 14.14g/ml), swelling index (1.08-1.17%), and Wettability (25.00-76.50s). Vitamin composition were: vitamin A (2719.50-3238.50ug/100g), vitamin BI (0.47- 0.64mg/100g), vitamin B12 (0.15-0.32mg/100g) and vitamin C (1.98-3.55mg/100g). Mineral composition were the following (mg/1 00g): calcium (123.24-151.63), magnesium (51.32-76.49), potassium (491.63-502.76) and iron (2.95-5.97). Microbial analysis revealed the following (cfu/g): bacteria _count (1.0x10°- 2.2x10°), yeast and mold (1.0x10°-3.0x 10), coliform count (1.03x10-1.60x10'), staphylococcus (1.8x10°- 4.2x10°), E.coli (3x10-5x10) and bacillus cereus was not detected. Rat bioassay revealed the hemoglobin parameter as follows: hemoglobin (12.90-15.70g/dl), packed cell volume (32.50-41.00%), red blood cell (5.20-6.56x 10mm"), total white blood cell (8.88-14.05x10'mm"), mean corpuscular volume (65.50-66.36fl), mean corpuscular hemoglobin (21.51-24.94pg), and mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration (34.42- 39.91g/dl); mean food intake (82.5-99.26g), mean weight gain (92-106.59g), protein intake (16.24-24.87g), protein efficiency ratio (4.14-6.56), and feed efficiency ratio (1.07-1.19).