Abstract

The chemical composition and functional properties of flour produced from two varieties (yellow and brown) of tigernut (Cyperus esculentus) seeds were studied. The seeds were obtained in dried form, sorted, wet cleaned, dried, milled and sieved to produce flour. The flours were tagged YTF and BTF for yellow and brown varieties, respectively. The protein contents of YTF and BTF were 7.15 and 9.70%, respectively. BTF has higher fat, ash, potassium, magnesium, manganese and iron contents than YTF. On the other hand, YTF has higher carbohydrate, crude fibre, calcium, sodium and copper contents. The zinc and copper levels were low in both flours (0.01 - 0.02 mg/100 g). A low bulk density (0.55 - 0.62 g/cm³), setback viscosity (6.58 - 13.75 RVU) and breakdown viscosity (0.58 - 1.50 RVU) were recorded for the flours.

Key words: Tigernut, flour, setback viscosity, pasting property, swelling power, retrogradation.