Browsing by Author "Badu, Mercy"

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    Nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of three varieties of carrot (Daucus carota)
    (Elsevier, 2021) Boadi, Nathaniel Owusu; Badu, Mercy; Kortei, Nii Korley; Saah, Selina Ama; Annor, Benjamin; Mensah, Michael Baah; Okyere, Harry; Fiebor, Alphonse; 0000-0002-8080-4812
    Carrots are a potentially rich source of antioxidants in addition to their nutritional proper ties. In this study, the nutritional composition and antioxidant properties of three varieties of carrots, namely Kuroda, Pamela and Amazonia cultivated in Ghana were determined. The peroxide scavenging method was used to determine the antioxidant properties of the ethanolic extracts of the carrot varieties at different concentrations. The protein, crude fi bre, fat and carbohydrate contents of the carrot varieties ranged 6.46 – 10.73 %, 7.18 – 8.87 %, 1.97 – 4.31 % and 6.25 – 8.39 % respectively. The three varieties had high moisture contents ranging from 69.06 to 75.30 %. The antioxidant properties were high even at low concentrations of extract, and their activity increased with time in the order Amazonia > kuroda > pamela. Amazonia had the highest fibre, protein and carbohydrate contents and the lowest moisture content, making it the most preferred variety.
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    Preparation and characterization of fat particles-in-water emulsions for the encapsulation of bioactive compounds using allanblackia seed fat and tween 20 and sodium alginate as emulsifying agents
    (2015-11-09) Badu, Mercy
    Effective delivery of poorly water-soluble bioactive ingredients has been considered a great challenge in the pharmaceutical, food and cosmetic industries. The compartmentalized hydrophobic and hydrophilic regions of emulsion systems give them the advantage to encapsulate polar and non-polar compounds for effective delivery. However, the challenge associated with emulsions is their thermodynamic instability. This study investigated the stabilisation process of fully crystallised fat globules as a dispersed phase in an oil-in-water emulsion system prepared from a naturally occurring vegetable fat, a nonionic surfactant and a polysaccharide biopolymer. The crystallisation profiles of the fats from Allanblackia seed and shea nuts were determined. Based on the results Allanblackia seed fat was selected and used as the dispersed phase in the oil-in-water emulsion system. The emulsion was formulated in the presence of Tween 20 and sodium alginate. The mixed emulsifier system gave stability against aggregation of the fat particles hence preventing coalescing, creaming and flocculation and this was more significant at 2 % to 4 % sodium alginate content. The emulsion particle size and microstructure were dependent on the fat/water ratio and a viscoelastic system with G′ > G′′ at the lower frequencies and G′′ > G′ at higher frequencies (where G and G are….). The dispersed fat particles emulsion system was used to encapsulate sudan orange dye (a water insoluble dye) and the efficiency of the encapsulation was characterized by an increase in particle size (ranging from 246 to 250 nm) and varying size distribution. UV-Vis spectrophotometric analysis of the dye loading capacity, release rate and leaching capacity showed a successful entrapment of the dye in the fat matrix. This confirms Allanblackia seed fat as a potential solid fat for its application in the formulation of oil-in-water emulsions.
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    Transesterification of palm kernel oil using calcium oxide as catalyst
    (International Scientific Organization, 2021) Badu, Mercy; Boateng, Ransford Appianin; Padevoah, Mary Magdalene; Agbemade , Agbemade; Quainoo, Timothy; Mensah, Micheal Baah; Boadi, Nathaniel Owusu; 0000-0002-8080-4812
    The study focused on using locally produced palm kernel oil, palm ethanol and CaO catalyst from guinea fowl eggshells for biodiesel production. The physicochemical properties such as density (0.8936±0.00008165 g/ml), viscosity (83.32±0.193cP/P), refractive index (1.4540±0.00036), pH (5.89±0.084 mol/L H+), acid value (13.9±0.3 mgKOH/g), saponification value (283.305±23.24 mgKOH/g) and iodine value (20.7±5.77 mgI2/g) of the crude oil was determined. The transesterification process was carried out by optimizing reaction conditions using the One-Factor (OFAC) at a time method. The biodiesel produced from optimum conditions had density (0.877±0.001g/ml), iodine value (13.97±1.037 mgI2/g) and cetane index (76.215±0.531). The results also gave a kinematic viscosity (7.87±0.531 mm²/s), pour point (8.667±0.943°C), acid value (0.92±0.145 mgKOH/g) and saponification value (161.75±11.017 mgKOH/g).