Effects of some Pretreatments of African Locust Bean Seeds (Parkia biglobosa) on Delivered Efficiency of a Devised Dehuller

Abstract

In West Africa in general and especially in Benin, African locust bean seeds (Parkia biglobosa) were processed and manufactured as various condiments extremely prised and consumed predominantly in sauces. Such condiments, variously named afitin, soumbala, netetu, iru, sonru, depending upon producer countries or zones, were processed using endogenous ten to twelve operation-steps technology including seeds precooking, dehulling of precooked seeds and cotyledons fermentation. Of all these operations, seeds husking constituted the most strenuous or painful and the less hygienic. Another consumers’ exigency to accounting for was a particular prized afitin formulation made of entire cotyledons only. To overcome these raised constraints, an experimental sheller plant was devised and realized. The actual article was devoted for analyzing the effects of different applied pre-treatments to locust bean seeds on technical efficiency of this designed mechanical dehuller. The seeds underwent, either hot-water cooking for 1, 2, 3 to 6 hours or fresh water soaking at 30±1°C for 24h, 48h and 72h else hot-air drying at 105°C for 1h, 2h and 3h. Evaluated performance parameters were the dehulling index (ID), cotyledons yield (RD), dehulling rate (TD) and ratio of broken cotyledons (TB). The results showed that devised apparatus had provided its best performance on the cooked seeds for 4 to 6h. The dehulling indices stabilized around 0.94-0.95, the dehulling rate to 98-99.44%, as ratio of broken cotyledons stagnated below 5% and dehulling yields at 48-52%. The corresponding values from traditional processing method were respectively of 0.93, 97%, 0% and 48.41%.