| dc.description.abstract | The weaning period defined as the period in a young child's life when supplementary
foods are introduced to complement breast milk poses great nutritional risks to children
in Kenya. Traditionally unfermented cereal porridge made from maize, sorghum or
millet {lour is usually fed to Kenyan children during the weaning period of four months
to five years. These cereal flours are low in protein especially lysine as a limiting amino
acid in most cereal grains. The flours are also high in bulk and subsequently there is a
high water and low nutrient intake during consumption of porridges made from the
flours. Several anti nutrient factors complex certain amino acids in the sorghum
(Sorghum vulgare) and fingermillet (Eleusine coracana). This study was aimed at
developing weaning flours from sorghum, millet and amaranth grains.
The work undertaken encompassed the preprocessing technologies of dehulling, malting
and grinding and mixing of flours to make weaning flours. Sorghum and millet flour
were blended with Amaranthus hypochondriacus to make high protein flours. The flours
were made into a stiff porridge (ugali) and fed to rats whose weekly growth weight and
feed intake were monitored.
The following observation were made: malting of sorghum significantly (p<O.Ol)
reduced flour water holding capacity (WHC) from 112.90% to 89.06%. Dehulling
significantly. (p < 0.05) reduced the WHC to 98.38%. The WHC of amaranth flour was
112.75%. On malting sorghum the energy content in a slurry with a viscosity of 1600 cp
was significantly (p<O.O I) increased from 114.38KJ (ungerminated) to 126.06KJ
(germinated). To get a standard porridge slurry of 1600 cp, 5.5% of amaranth flour, 5.0%
of unmalted sorghum flour was used. BlA when malted 7.0% sorghum flour was used.
This implied that 2% more malted flour could be added to the porridge giving the same
viscosity as 5% unmalted flour.
24 hours of malting was adequate. Malting of sorghum for 48 hours had no significant
(p<0.05) effect on viscosity. The In Vitro Protein Digestibilities (IVPD) was 55.00 for
unmalted sorghum, 57.60 for dehulled sorghum and 60.30% for malted sorghum. The In
Vitro starch digestibility (IVSD) was 44.25% for unmalted sorghum, 68.36% for dehulled
sorghum and 72.5% for malted sorghum. The In Vitro Starch Digestibilities (IVSD) was
44.25, 68.36, and 72.5% for the ungerminated, dehulled and malted sorghum
respectively.
The In Vivo Starch Digestibility (IVVSD) increased significantly (p<0.05) from 60.80 to
66.65% on dehulling and to 76.65% on malting. The In Vivo protein Digestibility
(IVVPD) also increased significantly from 55.65% to 65.5% on dehulling and to 67.75%
on malting. Both dehulling and malting increased digestibility.
The Protein Efficiency Ratio PER of the unmalted sorghum-amaranth diet was increased
from 0.4 to 1.43 on malting and to 0.94 on dehulling.
The WHC of fingennillet significantly (p<0.05) decreased from 79.96% to 70.34% on
malting whereas the energy content increased significantly (p<0.05) from l27.75KJ to
221.24 KJ when 9.5% of unmalted fingermillet flour and 16.2% of malted fingermillet
flour respectively were added to give the slurry viscosity of 1600 cp. The In Vitro
Protein Digestibility increased significantly (p<0.005) from 58.80% to 78.50% on
malting of the grain. The In Vitro Protein Digestibility increased from 64.68% to 78.58
% on malting. The In Vivo Starch Digestibility increased from 70.92% and 83.898%
after malting of the fingermillct. The PER of the unrnalted fingermillet was 1.61 whereas
that of malted was 2.05. Addition of premix increased the PER from l.61 to 3.66 and
2.88 for the unmalted and germinated millet amaranth cooked flours respectively. | en |
