Biochemical Assessment of ‘Daddawa’ Food Seasoning Produced by Fermentation of Pawpaw (Carica papaya) Seeds

Abstract

Biochemical assessment of pawpaw (Carica papaya) seeds and daddawa produced from the seed by fermentation was carried out. B. Subtilis, B. pumilus and B. licheniformis were found to be involved in the fermentation. The proximate composition showed that the seed had high lipid (48.50±0.45%) and protein (21.72±0.37%) contents, which increased significantly (p<0.05) after fermentation to 54.19±0.42 and 23.56±0.33% respectively. The main mineral elements found in fermented and unfermented seeds were magnesium, calcium and sodium. Fermentation decreased the level of antinutritional factors: oxalate from 210.1-40.2 mg/100 g, phytic acid from 102.0-68.0 mg/100 g, tannin from 15.5-8.3 mg/100 g and trypsin inhibitor from 2431.2-63.0 mg/100 g. Both fermented and unfermented papaya seeds were rich in the essential amino acids, leucine, lysine isoleucine and phenylalanine. Oleic acid is the predominant fatty acid in both raw and fermented seed oil being 77.7 and 80.7%, respectively, while, palmitic and stearic acids were present in appreciable quantities.