Ajayi A.O
African yam bean -Sphenostylis sternocarpa and Corn -Zea maiz are nutritional food sources that are valuable industrially even in consideration for enzyme production purposes. African yam bean Sphenostylis sternocarpa is a leguminous crop grown in West African particularly in Cameroon, Cote d’lvoire, Ghana, Nigeria and Togo. It is used extensively in various dietary preparations and has potential for supplementing the protein requirement of many families throughout the year. In this study, African yam bean seeds was soaked for 12 hours and dehulled after which it was boiled for 1 hours and it was then sieved and poured hot in calabashes laid with plantain leaves. It was covered and wrapped with jute bags and allowed to ferment naturally at room temperature for 72 hours. Bacteria such as Aerococcus viridans and Pediococcus cerevisiae were isolated and used as starter culture for controlled fermentation. The results of the proximate analysis show that protein content and the fat content of the sample fermented with Aerococcus viridans was higher than the one fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae while moisture content and carbohydrate content decreased when fermented with Aerococcus viridans and increased when fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae. The result of anti-nutrient content showed that there was an increase in phytic acid, oxalic acid and tannic acid of sample fermented with Aerococcus viridans than the ones fermented with Pediococcus cerevisiae. Corn, another dietary source is a cereal carbohydrate source that is widely cultivated in tropical Africa and the world at large for various domestic and industrial uses. The microbial source of the genus Bacillus used for this study utilized white cornstarch substrate as a sole carbon substrate as well as soluble starch used for comparative purpose. The enzyme production values of test organisms range from 0.022 unit/cfu x 102 in B.circulans (WBC) to 0.912 unit/cfu x 102 in B.licheniformis (WBL) for cornstarch and 0.01 unit/cfu x 102 in both B.megaterium (SBG) and B.licheniformis (SBL) to 0.693 unit/cfu x 102 in B.subtilis (WBS) for soluble starch.
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