Rapid population growth, climate change, intensive monoculture farming, and resource depletion are among the challenges that threaten the increasingly vulnerable global agri-food system. Heavy reliance on a few major crops is also linked to a monotonous diet, poor dietary habits, and micronutrient deficiencies, which are often associated with diet-related diseases. Diversification-of both agricultural production systems and diet-is a practical and sustainable approach to address these challenges and to improve global food and nutritional security. This strategy is aligned with the recommendations from the EAT-Lancet report, which highlighted the urgent need for increased consumption of plant-based foods to sustain population and planetary health. Bambara groundnut (Vigna subterranea (L.) Verdc.), an underutilized African legume, has the potential to contribute to improved food and nutrition security, while providing solutions for environmental sustainability and equity in food availability and affordability. This paper discusses the potential role of Bambara groundnut in diversifying agri-food systems and contributing to enhanced dietary and planetary sustainability, with emphasis on areas that span the value chain: from genetics, agroecology, nutrition, processing, and utilization, through to its socioeconomic potential. Bambara groundnut is a sustainable, low-cost source of complex carbohydrates, plant-based protein, unsaturated fatty acids, and essential minerals (magnesium, iron, zinc, and potassium), especially for those living in arid and semi-arid regions. As a legume, Bambara groundnut fixes atmospheric nitrogen to improve soil fertility. It is resilient to adverse environmental conditions and can yield on poor soil. Despite its impressive nutritional and agroecological profile, the potential of Bambara groundnut in improving the global food system is undermined by several factors, including resource limitation, knowledge gap, social stigma, and lack of policy incentives. Multiple research efforts to address these hurdles have led to a more promising outlook for Bambara groundnut; however, there is an urgent need to continue research to realize its full potential.

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Bambara Groundnut: An Underutilized Leguminous Crop for Global Food Security and Nutrition.

Bambara groundnut (BG, Vigna subterranea) and moringa (Moringa oleifera) are underutilised crops that improve nutritional quality of diets locally. The objectives of this study were to measure the performance of both crops on a marginal soil, analyse the harvested plant parts and noodles produced from them, and to undertake taste testing and survey consumer reactions. The noodles contained either 100% wheat flour or wheat with either BG flour (20%) or moringa powder (6%). BG yielded 0.70 t ha-1 of dry nuts and moringa 1.54 t ha-1 of dry leaflets. Both plant products were high in nutrients (especially K, and Ca in moringa) and some amino acids. Inclusion in noodles significantly enhanced their nutritional composition particularly energy content, crude fat, crude fibre and carbohydrate. Significant increases (p<0.05) of Mg, Mn, P, K and Zn occurred. Total essential amino acid concentration increased from 34.1% in the pure wheat noodles to 38.2% in BG and 34.8% in moringa noodles. Sensory analysis showed acceptability of all three noodle types was above the “Neither like nor dislike” category leaning towards the liking end for almost all the attributes tested. A consumer reaction survey showed there were internal and external factors motivating respondents to choose both products. Weak correlations were found between some of these factors and respondents’ willingness to pay more for the BG and moringa noodles. We conclude that adopting a comprehensive research approach from plant to plate can assist transfer of underutilised crops from field studies to acceptable consumer products with enhanced nutritional profiles.

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Enhancing the Nutritional Profile of Noodles With Bambara Groundnut (Vigna subterranea) and Moringa (Moringa oleifera): A Food System Approach

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Toxicity of Spent Phone Batteries on Microflora in Marine, Brackish and Freshwater Ecosystems

The objective of this study was to determine the proximate, mineral and sensory properties of noodles prepared from blends of Triticum durum (wheat), Digitaria exilis(acha), Vigna unguiculata (cowpea) flours and Moringa oleifera leaf powder (MLP). The flour samples were mixed in a four by four factorial, in complete randomized design (CRD) to formulate the composite blends at four different levels (25, 50, 75 and 100) which gave 16 samples. The flour samples were used to produce noodles and subjected to proximate, mineral and sensory analysis. Results of the proximate composition revealed that moisture content of the noodles ranged from 8.04-13.81%, ash 1.84-3.67%, fat 1.95-3.61%, crude protein 10.07-14.44%, carbohydrate 33.15-61.45%, dietary fibre 16.65-36.22% and caloric value 214.53-288.28 kJ/100 g. There was a significant increase (p < 0.05) in the moisture, ash, fat, crude protein and dietary fibre of the noodles on the substitution with cowpea flour, acha flour and MLP. Results of mineral composition also showed that sodium content ranged from 1.58-11.76 mg/100 g, potassium 26.70-40.40 mg/100 g, calcium 18.03-59.02 mg/100 g, iron 6.18-21.53 mg/100 g and phosphorus 0.51-1.54 mg/100 g. Noodle sample produced from 75% wheat and 25% cowpea flours were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in mineral content (except for potassium). Sensory evaluation results showed that cowpea and acha flours can be substituted at 25% levels with 75%, wheat flour and acha flour can as well be substituted at 50% with 50% cowpea flour while MLP at 2% with 50% wheat flour, 23% acha flour and 25% cowpea flour without significantly (p < 0.05) affected the sensory attributes of the noodles. This result therefore indicates that the use of these locally grown crops has the potential to increase the nutritional intake of consumers of this product.

Proximate and Mineral Compositions of Noodles Made from Triticum durum, Digitaria exilis, Vigna unguiculata Flour and Moringa oleifera Powder

Vinegar is the product made from the conversion of ethyl alcohol to acetic acid by a genus of bacteria, Acetobacter. The major aim of the work is to produce a vinegar with locally made fruits and compare it with the industrial produced vinegar to ascertain if it can be used to substitute the industrial produced vinegar and to also determine if there are presence of acetic acid bacteria present in the vinegar which can be used as inoculants for future fermentation the sensory attributes were also analysed to determine the consumer acceptability of the vinegar produced. This work involves production of vinegar from locally produced fruits in Nigeria by homemade scale process and then analyzing the vinegar to determine the physicochemical components of the vinegar as well as identifying the acetic acid bacteria present in the vinegar and its sensory attributes. The vinegar produced was analysed for its pH, relative density and titrable acidity and from the result, there was no significant difference in the pH and relative density of the vinegars. The titrable acidity of the industrial produced vinegar is higher than the locally produced vinegars analysed. The microbial isolation of the vinegar for safety assessment gave no growths in the media used for the analysis which means that there are no pathogenic organisms like mould or coliform which can cause diseases to the consumers. The major organism isolated was the Acetobacter spp. although the culture independent methods should be carried out to determine other non culturable organisms present in the vinegar. The sensory evaluation shows that the locally produced was well accepted from the scores on the result presented. Generally, the result of this work shows that indeed vinegar of good quality can be produced locally using locally grown fruits but optimization of the process should be carried out to improve yield.

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Production and Comparative Physicochemical Analysis of Vinegar from Locally Grown Fruits in Nigeria and Industrial Produced Vinegar

The quality evaluation of noodle samples from fermented bambara groundnut produced in blend proportions of wheat ( Triticum eastrum) flour was analyzed to determine its suitability for use in noodle production. Pure cultures of Lactobacillus plantarum [NRRL B-4306] and Lactobacillus fermentum [NRRL B-1932] was used to initiate a 72 hours fermentation of the bambara groundnut after which it was dried, finely milled and sieved. The result of crude protein content of the noodle samples ranged from 16.70 (50:50) to 19.28% (100:0) bambara: wheat; indicating increase in protein content with increase in bambara groundnut flour. Similar increment trend were also observed for fat, fiber and ash content with increase in the proportions of the fermented flour; while carbohydrate content had a decreasing status which ranged from 60.03 (50:50) to 53.60% (100:0) bambara: wheat. To determine the product quality; the cooking quality, cooking time, cooking yield and cooking loss of the noodles were analyzed and results showed that the control sample (0:100) recorded longest cooking time of 7.2 minutes than the experimental samples. Hence, increase in wheat flour replacement led to decrease in cooking time and increase in both cooking yield and cooking loss of the experimental samples. Sensorial data was used to access for consumer acceptance of the products and results showed that appearance was not significantly (p < 0.05) affected up to 70% substitution; while aroma, taste and texture was significantly (p ˃ 0.05) affected as the proportion of fermented bambara groundnut flour increased. Keywords: Noodles, Fermentation, Bambara Groundnut, Quality Evaluation

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Quality Evaluation of Noodles Produced from Fermented Bambara Groundnut (Vigna Subterranean (L) Verdc.) Flour

The potential of bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranean (L) Verdc. ) to be used as food in complementing infant formulations was studied by blending in proportions with Ogi (a traditional weaning food) and the physical, chemical and sensory qualities was compared to samples made from 100 percent Ogi and Nutrend (commercial weaning diet). The formulated diet containing 50% Ogi and 50% fermented bambara groundnut (Formula 1) had the highest energy value of 384.4 kcal and comparable to 383.5 kcal and 397.1 kcal for Ogi and Nutrend respectively. The high energy value of the formulated diets when compared to Recommended Daily Allowance (RDA) of infants (≤ 1 year) was above requirement. The protein content of formula 1 (13.8 g) was significantly higher than ogi (5.60 g) and other formulated foods, but significantly lower than Nutrend (16.00 g). Carbohydrate content (78.8) was significantly higher than Nutrend (64.0) while fat content for Formula 1 (8.1) showed no significant difference to Nutrend (8.5). For all the minerals studied, Formula 1 showed higher content to Nutrend and Ogi with exception to sodium, this was observed to be slightly higher in Ogi. The functional properties of the formulated diets decreased as the proportion of bambara groundnut increased but not to the extent that affected the sensory attributes of the food. However, all the sensory attributes of the formulated diets were significantly low when compared to Nutrend and Ogi and this could be attributed to the familiarity of the panelist to these foods. Keywords: Fermentation, Infant Foods, Proximate Composition, Sensory Evaluation

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Fermentation of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna Subterranean (L) Verdc.) to Complement Infant Foods

This study focused on molecular characterization and diversity of enteric bacteria isolated from different brands of commercially produced chicken feeds sold in Anambra State. A total of 1,536 different chicken feed samples (starter, growers, finisher and layers) were collected from the consumers, retailers and wholesalers and screened for the presence of enteric bacteria using pour plate technique. The isolates were characterized and identified using their colony descriptions, biochemical and molecular characteristics. The diversity of the enteric bacteria was determined by carefully recording the number of occurrences of each identified isolate from the studied feed samples. The result of this study revealed that Escherichia coli O157:H7 SS52 (EC) , Salmonella serovar Typhimurium U288 (ST), Escherichia coli SEC470 (ES), Salmonella serovar Enteritidis YU39 (SY) and Salmonella serovar Enteritidis FM366 (SE) were significantly (P 0.05). This study has revealed that EC, ST, ES, SY and SE were the enteric bacteria detected from the studied feed samples, of which EC was recorded most. Keywords : Molecular characterization, Enteric bacteria, Chicken Feeds, Diversity.

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Molecular Characterization and Diversity of Enteric Bacteria Isolated from Chicken Feeds

Aims: The study was undertaken to assess the toxicity potentials of spent laptop battery wastes on essential soil microbes and plant bio-indicators. Study Design: Five treatments and the controls designs were set up in triplicates and incubated at 25 ± 2°C for 21 days. The five treatments and controls set ups were designated as 6.25%, 12.5%, 25%, 50%, 100% and CTRL. Place and Duration of Study: Department of Microbiology, Chukwuemeka Odumegwu Ojukwu University (COOU), Uli Anambra State, Nigeria during May, 2019 July, 2019. Methodology: The microbial growth inhibition was analysed using standard method of spread plate technique while growth indices and percentage seedling emergence were adopted for the seed growth inhibition. Original Research Article Uba et al.; AJOB, 9(2): 33-46, 2020; Article no.AJOB.57691 34 Results: The result revealed that fungal population was the most sensitive followed by bacterial population and then actinomycetes population in terms of toxic responses to the spent laptop battery samples soil contamination. The order of toxicity of the spent battery samples on the growth indices and percentage seedling emergence of P. vulgaris and S. bicolor were: Product B-bean (-18.89%) > Product A-sorghum (-32.22%) > Product A-bean (38.63%) > Product Bsorghum (45.77%) revealing that both P. vulgaris and S. bicolor are very good bio-monitoring models for spent product A and B battery pollution assessment. Conclusion: Thus, strict and stringent measures on release of these electronic wastes in the environment are recommended.

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Assessment of the Toxicity Potentials of Spent Laptop Battery Wastes on Essential Soil Microbes and Plant Bioindicators

The effect of bioprocess on the nutritional quality of bambara groundnut ( Vigna subterranean (L) Verdc. ) flour was studied and in-vitro protein digestibility of the raw (non-bioprocessed) flour was found to increase from 70.74 to 89.70% after fermentation while anti-nutritional factors was found to decrease from 4.72, 870.30, 1470.15, 1.85 and 8.40 mg/100gm to 2.08, 383.70, 1023.10, 0.55 and 3.30 mg/100 gm for tannin, polyphenol, phytate, oxalate and trypsin inhibition activity (TIA) respectively. The results was evident that the antinutrient concentration in bambara groundnut can be eliminated or reduced to tolerable level through the bioprocess of fermentation, thus increase protein digestibility. The crude protein content of raw bambara seeds was found to be 20.80% and slightly decreased after fermentation (19.70%). The results showed that bioprocess had no significant effect on protein content. Crude fat content significantly (p ˂ 0.05) increased from 6.80 to 8.79% after fermentation while carbohydrate content was found to decrease from 57.20 to 52.25% and this was attributed to the possible breakdown and utilization of the sugars by the fermenting organisms as a ready source of energy. Fiber content significantly (p ˃ 0.05) decreased from 6.60 to 3.98%; and this can also be attributed to the partial solubilization of cellulose and hemicellulosic type of material by microbial enzymes. Ash content was found to decrease from 3.45 to 3.18%; while dry matter slightly increased from 93.80 to 94.50%. Results obtained for gross energy showed that bioprocess significantly (p ˂ 0.05) increased the energy value to 425.10 kCal/100 gm. The calculated metabolizable energy values, which ranged between 368.10 and 425.10 kCal/100 gm showed that bambara groundnut have energy concentrations favorably comparable to cereals. Keywords: Bioprocess, Bambara Groundnut, Anti-nutrients, Protein Digestibility

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Charles Chude

Papers

Quality Evaluation of Noodles Produced from Fermented Bambara Groundnut (Vigna Subterranean (L) Verdc.) Flour

Fermentation of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna Subterranean (L) Verdc.) to Complement Infant Foods

Molecular Characterization and Diversity of Enteric Bacteria Isolated from Chicken Feeds

Assessment of the Toxicity Potentials of Spent Laptop Battery Wastes on Essential Soil Microbes and Plant Bioindicators

Effect of Bioprocess on Nutritional Quality and Chemical Properties of Bambara Groundnut (Vigna Subterranean (L) Verdc.) Flour