EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PROCESSING AND STORAGE TECHNIQUES ON THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF OKRA (ABELMOSCHIUS ESCULENTUS (L) MOENCH)

Abstract

Four Okra cultivars (SAN 1, SAN 2, TAE 38 and LLP) were preserved by freezing, canning, sun-drying and irridiation. Nutrient analyses were conducted on a monthly basis over the storage duration of six months. Water blanching, a pre-processing treatment of freezing and canning accounted for some loss of thiamine, riboflavin, pyridoxine and L-ascorbic acid; steam-blanching did not bring about as much loss of these vitamins, all of which are water soluble. Also, the sterilisation process of canning resulted in a further additional loss of thiamine, riboflavin and pyridoxine, the amount lost being much larger for thiamine than for riboflavin and pyridoxine. On storage, frozen, sun-dried and canned okra lost varying amounts of B-carotene and L-ascorbic, after the initial processing loss are to blanching, were relatively stable to atmospheric oxidation. Irridation caused no noticeable loss of all five vitamins at the applied dosages, 2, 6, 8 and 12 krads. By the third day, however, all irridated okra samples had gone bad. Although the four processing methods brought about a varied loss in the protein (N X 6.25) content of okra cultivars studied, they did not seem to haveany effect on the other extract except for salt-treated sun-drying. Finally, only TAE 38 seemed to show the least adaptation to freezing and canning from the stand point of its B-carotene content which deteriorated rapidly during storage, over and above values observed for the B-carotene of SAM 1, SAM 2 and LLP.