Evaluation of nutritive value and functional qualities of sorghum subjected to different traditional processing methods

Sorghum (Sorghum bicolar L. Moench), a staple food in many parts of the world, is underutilised compared to its potential due to inherent problems. A study was conducted to evaluate the effect of different traditional processing methods on the nutritional and functional qualities of sorghum. The review of literature established the main causes of the low level of sorghum utilisation to be low nutritional and inferior organoleptic qualities. It was further established that traditional processing methods, such as germination and fermentation, can promote its utilisation. Three processing methods, namely germination (G), fermentation (F), and germination combined with fermentation (GF), were used to prepare feeds from two sorghum varieties, Tegemeo and Udo. Evaluation of the feed qualities in terms of acceptability, retention, feed efficiency ratio (FER) and protein efficiency ratio (PER), using weanling rats was carried out and compared to the untreated one which served as control. An element of functional properties was assessed in terms of diastatic power (DP). Regarding feed intake, there was no significant difference between the feeds. Body retention for Tegemeo variety was higher than that for Udo. FER ranged from 0.019 +/- 0.015 to 0.095 +/- 0.015, PER ranged from 0.113 +/- 0.089 to 0.703 +/- 0.111 and diastatic power from 15.99 +/- 1.20 to 114.58 +/- 0.95. In all the three cases, germinated feeds had the highest values and were therefore considered of higher nutritional value. It was therefore concluded that germination was superior to the other processing methods in improving the nutritional and functional qualities of sorghum.