EFFECT OF HYDROTHERMAL PROCESSING DURATION ON NUTRIENTS AND ANTI-NUTRIENTS COMPOSITION OF FLAMBOYANT SEEDS

The experiment was designed to study the effect of hydrothermal processing duration on nutrients and anti-nutrients compositions of Delonix regia seeds (DRS). Raw samples were collected, crushed and tagged T1; at boiling point (100oC), another sample of the cleaned seeds were poured into tower aluminum pot containing 25litres of water; samples were taken after 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes of cooking and tagged T2, T3, T4 and T5, respectively. Each sample of the treatments was replicated 3 times in a Completely Randomized Design. The results showed thatthere was a significant reduction (P<0.05) in the values of crude fibre with increasing duration of cooking; cooking of DRS for 20, 30 and 40 minutes gave the lowest values of 9.03, 10.05 and 11.91%, respectively. However, all the fibre fractions were not affected (P>0.05) cooking duration. Cooking DRS for 30 minutes (T4) gave better (P<0.05) crude protein (32.33%) and NFE (40.26%) values compared to the rest of the treatments. The metabolizable energy was significantly (P<0.05) reduced with increase in cooking duration, DRS cooked for 10, 20, 30 and 40 minutes had lower ME than the raw group. Cooking DRS for 40 minutes significantly (P<0.05) reduced trypsin inhibitor (19.10%) and saponin (0.26%) while cooking that of 30 and 40 minutes reduced (P<0.05) tannin (0.03 and 0.02%) however, seeds cooked for 30 minutes, T4 produced the least value of 0.08% for sodium. In view of these findings, DRS can serve as a useful feed ingredient for most monogastric animals especially in the semi-arid regions of Nigeria where feed is a very important limiting factor to livestock production during the dry season.