COMPARATIVE STUDIES OF THE NUTRITIONAL QUALITIES OF THREE FERMENTED AFRICAN LEGUME SEEDS USING Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilus AS STARTERS

Analysis into three African legume seeds; Prosopis africana, Parkia biglobosa and Glycine max was carried out. Unprocessed seeds of Prosopis africana were purchased from Otukpo market in Benue state of Nigeria and unprocessed seeds of Parkia biglobosa and Glycine max were purchased from Sabon-Gari market, Zaria, Kaduna state. These seeds were processed and fermented using 5% mixed Bacillus subtilis and Bacillus pumilis as inoculum into 300g of unfermented seeds. Seeds were allowed to ferment naturally along side with seeds inoculated with inoculum in the Department of Microbiology Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, for 48h.  For P. biglobosa and G.max, P.africana seeds were left to ferment for 118h. Fermented seeds from the analysis showed that seeds with inoculum fermented faster giving higher protein and lipids values than seeds allowed to ferment naturally. Fermented seeds of P. africana were richer in protein with a crude protein value of 40.07% followed by G.max with a crude protein value of 38.29% and P. biglobosa with a crude protein value of 36.13%. Fermented seeds of G.max were richer in lipids with a crude lipid value of 18.42%, followed by P.biglobosa with a crude lipid value of 13.01% and P.africana with 12.01%. These seeds were fermented into “daddawa” and “okpehe” condiments as flavour enhancers. The analysis of variance showed that the moisture content, Ash, Protein and Carbohydrate content of the seeds vary significantly (F < 0.0001). On the other hand, the lipid and fibre contents did not vary significantly, (F > 0.0001).