Nutritional and phytochemical characterization of selected flours as potential functional food ingredients in baking

Functional food components are potentially beneficial components found naturally in foods or added to them as functional ingredients. This study sought to characterize the nutrients and phytochemical composition of soy residue “okara”, malted millet, and wheat flour as natural sources of functional components. Chemical and phytochemical composition of the flours was carried out according to the standard analytical methods. Results showed that crude protein and fat were significantly higher (p < 0.05) in okara (26.83% and 19.00%) than malted millet (8.14 and 4.67%) and wheat flour (16.42% and 7.12%), respectively. A significant difference existed in the dietary fiber contents of the flours with ‘okara’ exhibiting a substantial amount of soluble and insoluble dietary fiber ranging from 3.85 -15.34% and 5.54 – 19.46%, respectively. The mineral profile revealed okara as having an appreciable amount of calcium, phosphorus, and sodium than malted millet and wheat flour. The phytochemical screening of the flour extracts revealed the presence of alkaloids, flavonoids, saponin, steroids, phenols, cardiac glycosides, and terpenoids. Okara showed significantly (p < 0.05) highest flavonoid content than other flours while, on the other hand malted millet displayed significantly highest phenolic content. The study revealed that okara, malted millet and wheat flours are rich sources of both health-promoting minerals and phytochemicals, which possess nutritional and therapeutic benefits.