This work investigated the potential of Moringa oleifera leaf powder to decrease the oxalate content and color change in cocoyam during achicha ede preparation. Achicha ede is an indigenous dish of Eastern Nigeria. A central composite design, generated with Design-Expert (version 13) software, was used for the experiment. The process variables were boiling time, concentration of M. oleifera leaf powder, and quantity of cocoyam. From the results obtained, it was observed that the addition of M. oleifera leaf powder increased the proximate composition of achicha ede, with values ranging from 4.39% to 6.35%, 0.37% to 0.56%, 1.58% to 2.03%, 1.48% to 1.86%, 4.46% to 6.36%, and 83.24% to 86.85%, for protein, fat, ash, fiber, moisture, and carbohydrate, respectively. Further analysis revealed that the oxalate content and color change of the samples ranged from 0.25 to 0.86 mg/100 g and 0.01 to 0.35, respectively. From the regression models and interaction plots, it was observed that boiling time and quantity of M. oleifera leaf powder contributed to the reduction of oxalate content and color change in the samples. Also, the sensory properties were enhanced, with achicha ede samples having a mean score of 8.95. From the optimization plot, the ideal conditions for preparing achicha ede were identified as boiling cocoyam for 1.29 hours with the addition of 15 g M. oleifera leaf powder. Under these conditions, achicha ede would have an oxalate content of 0.39 mg/100 g, color change of 0.19, and overall acceptability of 6.64. The findings demonstrate the potential of M. oleifera leaf powder as a natural antioxidant and flavor enhancer in achicha ede.
Mba et al. (Fri,) studied this question.