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Journal of Food, Agriculture & Environment Vol.5 (2) : 128-131. 2007

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Nutritional evaluation of the horse eye bean (Mucuna urens): Effect of processing on the chemical composition
U. E. Umoren * , O. O. Effiong and I. E. Akpan
Department of Animal Science, Faculty of Agriculture, University of Calabar, Nigeria. *e-mail: drumoren34@yahoo.co.uk
Received 15 January 2007, accepted 5 April 2007.

Abstract
Nutritional evaluation of the horse eye bean (Mucuna urens) was carried out to study the effect of different processing methods (autoclaving, cooking, roasting and germination) on its chemical composition. Results indicated that processing methods significantly (p<0.05) increased the chemical composition of M. urens. Crude protein ranged from 24.25% in the raw to 27.00% in autoclaved sample. Crude fibre was least (3.50%) in germinated but highest (4.48%) in cooked Mucuna urens. Ether extract varied from 6.17% in cooked to 11.20% in autoclaved sample; ash ranged from 1.37% in roasted to 1.97% in germinated horse eye bean. Nitrogen-free extract varied from 55.32% in autoclaved to 62.92% in cooked sample. Autoclaving, roasting and cooking (thermal methods) resulted in significantly (p<0.05) lower levels of methionine, cystine, lysine and anti-nutritional factors (HCN, oxalate, phytate and tannins), but led to an increase in the levels of copper and zinc, essential microelements. It was concluded from the study that processing of Mucuna urens by cooking, autoclaving and roasting, though desirable, will lead to reduction in the levels of some essential amino acids. Key words: Nutritional evaluation, processing methods, chemical composition, horse eye bean.

Introduction The current food and nutrition crisis in most parts of the world, particularly in Sub-Saharan Africa, is the result of the inability of most countries in this region to either produce, purchase or stock enough food to satisfy the rising demand, especially in the urban centres. When food supplies cannot meet the demand, the result is hunger, hence nutritional deficiency. The problem of protein malnutrition in humans has been recognised as one of the major nutritional deficiencies. Although animal proteins are superior to plant proteins, their ratio in diets, especially in developing countries, is not likely to change in the immediate future due to inadequate supply and high unit cost 1. Consequently, plant proteins will continue to be sought and used to make up for the short-fall in animal protein supply. The search for high protein foods of plant origin has been further spurred by the fact that in many parts of the world where symptoms of malnutrition are most obvious, the climate, farming system and customs are such that the raising of meat or dairy cows on a large scale is not practicable, thus eliminating a major source of animal protein from the local diet 2. Food legumes are important and can provide considerably the needed proteins under the stated conditions. However, only a relatively small number of over 13,000 species of food legumes available over the world are used as food items 2. Those legumes, which are generally consumed, are therefore more exploited than others and information on them, as would be expected, are well documented. Mucuna has been used as a traditional minor food crop for centuries in the foothills and lower hills of the eastern Himalayas and in Mauritius, as well as in the Philippines, Java and in Japan 3. Reports show that while traditional use as food continues today in many countries of Asia and Africa, Mucuna never seems to
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have found acceptance as food in Latin America, in spite of one hundred years presence there. In large parts of Srilanka, especially low income group consume Mucuna pruriens after an overnight soaking and long cooking 4. Research efforts on Mucuna as food and food crop have been particularly active in Nigeria. In eastern Nigeria Mucuna urens has been used as a soup thickener or condiment 5, whereas in the northern Nigeria some farmers use it as feed for farm animals 6. There are also reports that Mucuna is used as feeds in the Southern United States 7. In addition to their value as foodstuffs, the food legumes including Mucuna are also important in cropping systems because of their ability to fix nitrogen and so increase the overall fertility of the soil, thus partially replacing the use of expensive nitrogenous fertilizers. Despite being nutritionally promising, Mucuna has been reported to contain some endogenous toxic factors. Relatively high concentration of tannins, phytic acid, cyanogenic glucoside, oxalate and gossypol have been reported in Mucuna 8, 9. Toxic compounds including L-DOPA (3,4-dihydroxy-L-phenylalanine), nicotine, physostigmine and serotinine have also been reported in Mucuna. These factors negatively affect the nutritive value of the beans through direct and indirect reactions; they inhibit proteins and carbohydrate digestibility; induce pathological changes in the intestine and liver tissues, thus affecting metabolism; inhibit a number of enzymes and bind nutrients, thus making them unavailable 10. It has been pointed out 11 that processing mostly by heat treatment could improve the nutritional value of many legumes. This study therefore investigated the effect of different processing methods on the chemical composition of Mucuna urens.
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Materials and Methods Source and processing of sample: Fifteen kilograms of horse eye bean (Mucuna urens) was purchased locally from the market. The material was divided into five batches. The first batch was the raw sample. The second batch was cracked and cooked using a pressure cooker at 100C for 30 min, the normal procedure for pressure cooking; the third batch was roasted in fire for 30 min; the fourth was autoclaved at 105C at 15 psi for 30 min. The fifth batch was planted and then harvested at sprouting. These were some of the common processing methods normally employed by consumers of this crop. The seeds so prepared were milled and stored in labeled plastic containers. Proximate analysis: Proximate composition of the raw and processed (roasted, cooked, autoclaved and germinated) Mucuna urens samples was determined according to the method of Association of Official Analytical Chemists 12. The crude protein was calculated by multiplying the percentage of nitrogen by 6.25. Amino acid determination: The amino acid profiles of the raw and differently processed Mucuna bean were determined 13. The samples were dried to constant weight, defatted, hydrolysed, evaporated in a rotary evaporator and then loaded into the Technicon Sequential Multi-sample amino acid auto analyzer (TSM). Mineral analysis: Total phosphorus was determined by the automated procedure which utilizes the reaction between phosphorus and molybdovanadate to form a phosphomolybdovanadate complex. This complex was measured colorimetrically at 420 nm using Technicon autoanalyser. Other minerals were determined by first wet ashing the Mucuna flour 12. Potassium and sodium were determined by the use of flame photometry (Corning 400). Calcium, iron, magnesium, manganese and zinc were determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometry (Perkin Elmer 703). Anti-nutritional factors: Concentrations of some common antinutritional factors present in the horse eye bean were determined. These included total oxalate 14, tannins 15 and phytic acid 16. Cyanogenic glycoside was estimated by determining the amount of HCN released on hydrolysis through the alkaline titration method 12. Statistical analysis: All data were subjected to randomized oneway analysis of variance at 0.05 level. Significant means were separated by Duncans multiple range test 17. Results and Discussion Proximate composition: The proximate composition of the raw and processed horse eye bean (Mucuna urens) is presented in Table 1. It varied significantly (p<0.05) among the various treatments. For example, the crude protein varied from 24.25% in the raw to 27.00% in autoclaved sample, the average being 25.85%. The crude protein values of raw and cooked samples (24.05 and 25.06%, respectively) were quite close to 23.0% reported

earlier 6 for raw Mucuna urens; whereas figures for roasted (26.47%), germinated (26.49%) and autoclaved (27.00%) were higher than this value. However, the result of this work falls within the crude protein range of 2335% reported in Mucuna beans 9, 18. The higher crude protein levels observed in cooked samples could be attributed to processing. Processing improves nutritive value and acceptability of food legumes 19. The crude fibre content ranged from 3.50% in germinated to 4.48% in cooked samples. Cooking is known to increase the solubility of simple sugars 20. Loss of soluble carbohydrates into the cooking water causes a rise in the concentration of the insoluble ones, such as the crude fibre in the samples. This may explain why the cooked M. urens had higher crude fibre values. The earlier result 6 revealed that the raw Mucuna urens contained 6.43% crude fibre, a value higher than 4.08% obtained in this study. A higher crude fibre of cooked compared to raw samples was in agreement with other results 11 of an increased dietary fibre during cooking of food legumes. The following ranges: 6.1711.20, 1.371.90 and 55.3262.92% were recorded for ether extract, ash and nitrogen-free extract, respectively. Apart from the cooked sample with ether extract value of 6.17%, which compared with 6.9% 6, all other samples had higher values. The mean ash content of 1.71% obtained in this study was lower than 3.17% reported for Mucuna beans 6. NFE values of 61.18 and 62.92% recorded in the raw and cooked samples, respectively compared favourably with 63.14 and 63.0% reported for unspecified variety of Mucuna 11. The low NFE of germinated sample may be attributed to the fact that some of the carbohydrates must have been converted to energy and used up during the germination process. Amino acid content: The amino acid profile of the differently processed Mucuna urens bean are summarized in Table 2. All the treatments had relatively high essential and non-essential amino acids with the exception of cystine, tyrosine and methionine. Lysine, methionine and cystine were reduced (p<0.05) in cooked, roasted and autoclaved samples. Cystine values ranged from 0.40 in cooked to 0.75 g/16 g N in raw sample. Tyrosine varied from 0.70 in germinated to 1.23 g/16 g N in autoclaved sample. Values for methionine was lowest (1.02 g/16 g N) in germinated but highest (1.73 g/16 g N) in raw sample. Methionine value falls within the range (1.161.32 g/16 g N) reported for Mucuna 9 but was lower than FAO/WHO 21 reference value of 2.2 g/16 g N indicated as being nutritionally adequate. Lysine, methionine and cystine are most susceptible to losses during processing as a result of oxidation or reactions with other amino acids, fatty acids and carbohydrates 20. This may explain why these amino acids were present in reduced amounts in the heat-treated Mucuna samples.

Table 1. Proximate composition of differently processed horse eye bean (Mucuna urens) expressed as percentage of dry matter.
Seed treatment Raw Cooked Roasted Germinated Autoclaved Mean S. E. Of means Moisture 25.17d 66.50a 56.52c 14.43e 60.34b 44.59 9.29 DM 74.83b 33.50e 43.48c 85.57a 39.66d 55.41 9.29 CF 4.08ab 4.48a 4.37ab 3.50b 4.21a 4.21 0.18 CP 24.25c 25.06b 26.47ab 26.49ab 27.00a 25.85 0.46 EE 8.59ab 6.17b 8.11ab 10.80a 11.20a 8.97 0.83 Ash 1.90a 1.37ab 1.43ab 1.97a 1.88a 1.71 0.11 NFE 61.18a 62.92a 59.62ab 57.24b 55.32b 59.26 1.28

Values are means of triplicate determinations. Values within the same column followed by different superscripts are significantly different (p<0.05). DM dry matter, CF crude fibre; CP crude protein, EE ether extract, NFE nitrogen-free extract.

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Table 2. Amino acid composition of differently processed Mucuna urens (g/16 g N).
Seed treatment Raw Cooked Roasted Germinated Autoclaved Mean S. E. of means Lys 8.60 7.03 7.61 8.55 7.32 7.82 0.29 His 2.92 3.10 3.00 2.89 2.99 2.98 0.03 Arg 6.16 7.13 6.92 6.62 6.81 6.73 0.15 Asp 15.06 13.13 14.22 15.20 14.20 14.36 0.33 Thr Ser 4.51 2.63 4.42 2.03 3.99 2.01 4.44 2.56 4.23 2.31 4.32 2.31 0.004 0.12 Glu Pro Gly 12.03 3.05 2.52 12.80 2.70 3.38 12.23 2.82 3.17 12.30 3.40 2.22 13.50 1.83 2.99 12.57 2.75 2.86 0.28 0.24 0.19 Ala Cys 4.46 0.78 5.02 0.40 4.96 0.55 4.33 0.68 4.79 0.59 4.72 0.60 0.12 0.06 Val 6.77 6.20 6.12 6.44 6.51 6.41 0.10 Met 1.73 1.67 1.06 1.02 1.52 1.40 0.14 Iso 5.02 5.37 5.11 4.99 5.41 5.18 0.08 Leu Tyr 4.16 0.75 4.60 0.83 4.56 0.79 4.05 0.70 5.18 1.23 4.51 0.86 0.18 0.08 Phe 5.65 6.16 6.23 5.50 5.80 5.87 0.13

Lys lysine, His histidine, Arg arginine, Asp aspartic acid, Thr threonine, Ser serine, Glu glutamic acid, Pro proline, Gly glycine, Ala alanine, Cys cystine, Val valine, Met methionine, Iso isoleusine, Leu leucine, Tyr tyrosine, Phe phenylalanine.

Heat treatment of legumes if not carried out under controlled conditions may lead to a substantial decrease in nutritional value, and therefore their supplementary effects to cereal grains and other foods 22 may be lost. It has been shown that cooking cowpeas in water under 15 psi at 121C for 15, 30 and 45 minutes decreased protein quality progressively 23. The authors, however, noted that thermal processing, if not over done, increases protein quality. It is well known that many plant protein foodstuffs such as soyabeans and Mucuna must be properly processed by cooking to destroy endogenous anti-nutritional factors. Mineral composition: Results of the mineral composition of the raw and processed Mucuna urens samples are presented in Table 3. There were significant (p<0.05) variabilities in the mineral content. Potassium was the most abundant element varying from 1800.05 mg/ 100 g in autoclaved to 2100.00 mg/100 g in germinated and roasted samples respectively. Phosphorus was the second most abundant element, ranging from 0.87 in germinated to 87.67 mg/100 g in raw samples. Magnesium varied from 34.27 mg/100 g in autoclaved to 54.05 mg/100 g in raw sample. Calcium ranged between 12.03 in germinated and 36.06 mg/100 g in raw sample. Lowest sodium value (23.30 mg/100 g) was recorded in autoclaved Mucuna urens, while the highest value (33.31 mg/100 g) was in roasted sample. Manganese varied from 3.15 in autoclaved to 4.47 mg/100 g in germinated bean. Values for iron was lowest (6.82 mg/100 g) in autoclaved sample, but highest (15.91 mg/100 g) in the raw sample. Copper varied from 3.05 in autoclaved to 6.74 mg/100 g in germinated Mucuna sample. Zinc was least among the elements studied, and it varied from 0.03 mg/100 g in the raw sample to 0.10 mg/100 g in the autoclaved sample. Results of this work showed that comparatively all the processed Mucuna bean had higher values for copper and zinc than the raw samples. Cooked and germinated beans contained more manganese while germinated, roasted and cooked samples had more sodium than the raw bean. This implies that processing improved the concentrations of these minerals. However, raw beans had higher values for iron, magnesium, calcium and

phosphorus. Some quantities of these minerals may have been lost during processing. Mineral composition of legume seeds have been reported by many workers 24-26. Apart from potassium and phosphorus values in some legume seeds, mineral values of Mucuna urens obtained in this investigation are comparable to those of other food legumes and can make a significant contribution to dietary mineral intake. Anti-nutritional factors: Table 4 summarizes the concentration of the antinutritional factors determined in the raw and processed Mucuna urens. Values were significantly different (p<0.05) among treatments. The amount of HCN ranged from 4.32 mg/100 g in cooked to 12.98 mg/100 g in raw samples. Oxalate was lowest (44.03 mg/100 g) in roasted but highest (114.38 mg/100 g) in raw Mucuna urens. Tannins and phytate were lowest in cooked horse eye bean (36.20 and 24.12 mg/100 g, respectively) while the raw samples recorded the highest values of 468.37 and 312.04 mg/ 100 g, respectively. Table 4. Anti-nutritional factors in differently processed Mucuna urens (mg/100 g).
Seed treatment Raw Cooked Roasted Germinated Autoclaved Mean S. E. of means HCN 12.98b 4.32c 8.65b 10.80ab 6.48bc 8.65 1.37 Oxalate 114.38a 79.23b 44.03c 79.17b 74.80b 78.32 9.98 Tannins 468.37a 36.20e 45.87d 362.18b 229.72c 228.47 76.35 Phytate 312.04a 24.12d 30.64d 243.92b 153.15c 152.77 51.05

Values are means of duplicate determinations. Values within the same column followed by different superscripts are significantly different (p<0.05).

Generally, cooking, roasting and autoclaving decreased the concentration of the various anti-nutritional factors in the Mucuna urens, but did not completely eliminate them. Inability of the different thermal processes to completely eliminate these antinutrients may be attributed to the temperature and duration of thermal process, method of sample preparation and the inherent nature of the anti-nutritional factor. For instance, Umoren 27 observed that milling before autoclaving led to a complete loss of

Table 3. Mineral composition of variously processed Mucuna urens (mg/100 g).

Seed treatment Raw Cooked Roasted Germinated Autoclaved Mean S. E. of means K 2000.00b 1800.05c 2000.00b 2100.00a 2100.00a 2000.01 48.98 Na 26.67ab 23.30b 30.00a 30.00a 33.31a 28.66 1.52 P 87.72a 65.94b 10.14c 0.87d 6.86c 34.31 15.89 Ca 36.06a 16.03 18.07b 12.03bc 18.03b 20.04 3.71 Mg 54.05a 34.27b 51.83a 48.91a 50.88a 47.99 3.16 Mn 3.94b 3.15b 4.21a 4.47a 3.68ab 3.89 0.20 Fe 15.91a 6.82b 7.27ab 8.64ab 10.03b 9.73 1.47 Cu 3.48bc 3.05c 4.57b 6.74a 5.22ab 4.61 0.59 Zn 0.03b 0.10a 0.06ab 0.06ab 0.06ab 0.06 0.009

Values are means of triplicate determinations. Values within the same column followed by different superscripts are significantly different (p<0.05).

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HCN from cowpeas. He suggested that milling made the appropriate -glycosidase to come in contact with the cyanogenic glycoside for hydrolysis so that heating will facilitate this process and consequently the rapid and complete loss of HCN. In this work, the samples were not milled prior to heat treatment. This might explain why HCN in the samples was not completely eliminated or expelled. Heat application also decreased the level of oxalate in the samples. Tannins and phytate levels were reduced by thermal processing and not completely eliminated from the samples. Results of this study agree with earlier reports 23 that cooking partially removed tannic and phytic acids from common beans. These reports suggest that tannic and phytic acids are heat-stable. The complex nature of tannin structure 28 and the strong electrostatic force existing between the contiguous phosphate radicals within the phytate structure 29 will affect the extent to which tannins and phytate could be affected by heat processing. Conclusions Processing had a significant effect on the chemical composition of the Mucuna urens. Cooking, roasting and autoclaving increased the protein, copper, zinc, manganese and sodium levels, but reduced the concentration of lysine, cystine, methionine and the anti-nutritional factors in the various samples. References
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