Effects of Processing Methods on the Nutritional Properties of Sweet Potato and Sorghum

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas) is an important food crop in the tropical and sub tropical countries and belongs to the family convolvulaceae. It is cultivated in more than 100 countries worldwide. Nigeria is the third largest producer of sweet potato in the world with china leading, followed by Uganda. Sweet potato ranks seventh among the world food crops, third in value of production and fifth in caloric contribution to human diet. The study was carried out to determine a processing method that has less or no effect on the nutritional properties of sweet potato and sorghum. The results of the proximate analysis showed whole sorghum flour (WSF) to contain 10.6 moisture, 3.7 lipid, 0.9 ash, 13.1protein, 70.0 carbohydrates and 1.7 fiber as against malted sorghum (MSF) which has 9.9 moisture, 2.2 lipid 1.1 ash, 10.7 protein, 1.4 fiber and 73.3 carbohydrate.  Similar analyses were carried out in sweet potatoes as in sorghum and results obtained. The research result obtained showed that the whole sorghum flour processing method has less effect on the nutritional properties of sorghum and the grated potato flour processing method has less effect on the nutritional properties of sweet potato.