Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology

DR ERIC AMONSOU

TRADITIONAL FOOD CROPS HOLD GREAT PROMISE FOR IMPROVED FOOD, NUTRITION

SECURITY AND HEALTH

EURS2016

THE CHALLENGES

Food Insecurity in South African Households

Malnutrition (1 or 3 death)

Climate change Extreme drought

leading to a shortage in food supply

Population Growth By 2050, the food

production will need to nearly double

population

Diets and life style diseases

(Over nutrition, lack of nutrition

knowledge)

CVD, Diabetes, obesity

THE CHALLENGES - Food Security in SA Household and community

Food Insecurity in

SA HOUSEHOLD

Malnutrition 24% Children Stunted

57% wasting

Poverty Lack of dietary diversity

Thus, the improvement of household food security may require an improvement in household income level.

Focusing attention on more drought resistance food crop

Climate change Extreme Drought leading to

shortage in food supply

Death due non-communicable diseases: in 2008 An estimated 36 million deaths, or 63% of the 57 million deaths) (WHO Revised report , 2013)

WHO’s projections: The total annual number of deaths from NCD’s will increase to 55 million by 2030.

THE CHALLENGES- Life style diseases

• More than one-third of U.S. adults (35.7%) are obese

• South Africa : adult Obesity : 33,5% (over 61% : overweight)

• The WHO estimates that by 2015: the number of overweight people worldwide will increase to 2.3 billion, whilst more than 700 million will be obese

Obesity & Obesity-related conditions (e.g. Heart disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes)

(Source: ttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Obesity6.JPG)

'Let food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food’

http://www.health-news.com/fitness/obesity-really-epidemic

Hippocrates (460-377 BC)

Food, nutrition and health challenges

• More food needed • Increase food

supply

Food product development will

be consumer driven

High demand for functional

foods and ingredients

http://www.plantzafrica.com/plantqrs

Sorghum Millet Bambara (Izindlubu) Cowpea

Marama Bean Bauhinia Pigeon Pea Amadumbe

TRADITIONAL FOOD CROPS

TRADITIONAL FOOD CROPS

• Can these crops provide some solutions ?

According Gradziano Da Silva (2012), “neglected or underutilised crops may play an important role in addressing the food and agricultural challenges of the future and should be re-evaluated”.

POTENTIAL OF NEGLECTED TRADITIONAL CROPS

Neglected Underutilized Food Crops

Resistant to Drought

Well Adapted to difficult environments

Nutrient rich

Income GenerationAgroprocessing & Value

Addition = Income Generation

Greater ecosystem stability

Cultural diversityCreate new market niches

Growing demand for healthy/functional foods

Department of Biotechnology and Food Technology

DEPARTMENT OF BIOTECHNOLOGY AND FOOD TECHNOLOGY

Enzyme Technology

Plant Biotechnology

Waste Water Research

Food Science and

Technology

Overview Main research focus:

• Development of nutritious and health promoting foods for household nutrition based on traditional food crops

• Characterisation of functional biomolecules (e.g. starch, protein and mucilage) mainly from traditional grains and tubers for the development of functional foods and ingredients

• Food Safety -Microbiological quality assessment of food and Biocontrol of pathogen in foods

FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

FOOD SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY RESEARCH

Dr John Mellem Dr EO AMONSOU

Objectives Combine indigenous knowledge and modern technology to

develop nutrient-rich foods for household consumption

Extraction and characterisation of major components such as

protein, polysaccharide and complexes

Evaluate the functional bioactive properties of candidate biomolecules

Establish, in partnership with the communities in KZN,

processing activities for value addition and provide training on developed technologies

BIOMOLECULES AND FUNCTIONAL PRODUCT RESEARCH

OVERVIEW OF CURRENT RESEARCH

CONSUMER ACCEPTANCE OF

PROVITAMIN A-BIOFORTIFIED

AMAHEWU

Fig 3 PCA for consumer acceptability of

Provitamin A- biofortified amahewu

Key findings:

• Provitamin A-biofortified amahewu was

acceptable to consumers and appears to be slightly

more preferred than white maize amahewu.

• The use of starter cultures further improved the

taste, aroma and overall acceptability of amahewu.

• Provitamin A-biofortified maize has the potential

to improve food insecurity in rural household and

succeed in delivering vitamin A to vulnerable

populations in the form of amahewu.

Reference: AWOBUSUYI T.D., AMONSOU EO, Siwela M., UNATHI

KOLANISI (2015). Provitamin A retention and sensory acceptability of

amahewu, a non-alcoholic cereal-based beverage made with provitamin A-

biofortified maize. Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture

(Accepted)

BAUHINIA GRAINS

Source : Amonsou et al., 2015, Under –review

Bauhinia galpinii

Harvesting amadumbe (Colocasia

esculenta) from Mbongolwane wetland

Source : http://www.wrc.org.za

AMADUMBE RESEARCH

Visit to amadumbe farm

land in Jozini

Source: Carbohydrate polymers (2015)

Amadumbe

Source

Type RDS % SDS% RS% GIᵇ

Cultivated Raw 23.1ᵇ ± 0.3 14ᵃ ± 0.1 57.1ᵃ ± 0.4 42.1ᵇ ± 0.3

Boil 16.3ᵇ ± 0.2 24ᵇ ± 0.2 54ᵃ ± 0.1 43.3ᵇ ± 0.6

Bake 17.2ᵇ ± 0.2 25ᵇ ± 0.2 52ᵃ ± 0.3 44ᵇ ± 0.1

Wild Raw 11.2ᵃ ± 0.4 20.3ᵇ ± 0.2 64.3ᵇ ± 0.3 41ᵃ ± 0.2

Boil 15ᵃ ± 0.3 19ᵃ ± 0.3 61.2ᵇ ± 0.2 40.4ᵃ ± 0.5

Bake 13ᵃ ± 0.2 22ᵃ ± 0.3 60ᵇ ± 0.3 43ᵃ ± 0.1

A: cultivated, B: Wilde

AMADUMBE RESEARCH

Biofilms from amandumbe starch at different nanocrystals concentrations

Biofilm with 20% Starch nanocrystals Biofilm with 15% Starch nanocrystals

Biofilm with 40% sorbitol

Source: Bruce Chakara, BTech report, 2014

Genotypes Moisture Amylose Relative

crystallinity

SB7-1 8.9a±0.3 26.7c±0.1 34.3a±0.1

SB8-1 9.1a±0.2 30.7d±0.6 33.8a±0.1

BMB-29 8.5a±0.1 35.1e±0.2 29.4a±0.1

BMB-16 8.6a±0.7 19.6a±0.3 35.3b±0.1

SB-1-1 9.3a±0.2 25.2b±0.1 35.0b±0.1

XRD SEM

Source : Carbohydrate polymer (2015)

BAMBARA RESEARCH

BAMBARA STARCH

BAMBARA PROTEINS Samples Peak To (oC) Td (oC) ΔH (J/g)

Red

Isolate

I 64.2 ± 0.1 71.0 ± 0.6 6.6 ± 0.1

II 78.5 ± 0.5 84.3 ± 0.4 6.8 ± 0.4

Maroon

Isolate

I 62.1 ± 0.1 68.7 ± 0.2 6.4 ± 0.3

II 78.1 ± 0.2 90.4 ± 0.1 11.7 ± 0.5

Cream

Isolate

I 66.9 ± 0.7 69.9 ± 0.5 6.5 ± 0.1

II 76.0 ± 0.1 78.9 ± 0.7 6.7 ± 0.7

NR R

1 2 3

0

2 0

4 0

6 0

8 0

S a m p le s ( 2 . 5 m g /m L )

DP

PH

Ra

dic

al

Sc

av

en

gin

g a

cti

vit

y(%

)

G lu ta th io ne B P H 1 k D a 1 -3 k D a 3 -5 K D a 5 -1 0 k D a

A lc a la s e T ry p s in P e p s in

GH

A B

E

D

C

B

C

GH

FE

A

K

JI

G

Antioxidant activity

DSC

SDS-PAGE

Results: droplets size and distribution

Figure 7: Fluorescence micro images for emulsions stabilized with bambara protein concentrate (BPC), cowpea protein concentrate (CPPC) and guar gum (GG) (A) O/W emulsion, (B) BPC stabilized and (C) BPC: GG complex stabilized O/W emulsion (D) O/W emulsion, (E) CPPC stabilized and (F) CPPC: GG complex stabilized O/W emulsion stained with Nile red

100 µm 100 µm

100 µm 100 µm

APPLICATION OF PROTEIN-POLYSACCHARIDE COMPLEXES IN EMULSION STABILIZATION AND MICROENCAPSULATION

Results: Emulsion stability

Figure 8: Effect of BPC, BPC: GG complex, CPPC and CPPC: GG complex on emulsion stability for 0 day (A&D), 15 days (B&E) and 30 days (C&F) at 4˚C

C B C

Protein Hydrogels

Figure 1: Bambara and cowpea protein (8.5%w/v) hydrogels

0%5%

10%15%20%25%30%35%40%45%50%

0 3 6 9 12 15 18 21 24

Rib

ofl

av

in R

ele

ase

Time(Hours)

BPHG

BPHG-Ca

BPHI

BPHI-Ca

Figure 7: Riboflavin release from bambara protein hydrogels crosslinked with 10 mM CaCl2 under gastric and intestinal conditions. Bambara protein hydrogel gastric fluid (BPHG), bambara protein hydrogel crosslinked with CaCl2 in gastric fluid (BPHG-Ca), Bambara protein hydrogel intestinal fluid (BPHI) and bambara protein hydrogel crosslinked with CaCl2 in intestinal fluid (BPHI-Ca).

CONCLUSIONS

• Traditional crops can potentially be used to broaden the food and create dietary diversity.

• Traditional food crops are important sources of bioactive compounds such as antioxidant, antihypertensive and antidiabetics and thus can be use for the development of high value functional ingredients.

• New food products and ingredient with various application can be developed using traditional food crops.

• These products may be taken up by small to medium agro-processing enterprises for commercialisation.

THANK YOU