TITLE:
Antioxidant, Total Lycopene, Ascorbic Acid and Microbial Load Estimation in Powdered Tomato Varieties Sold in Dutsin-Ma Market
AUTHORS:
Godwin Ojochogu Adejo, Francis Akumabi Agbali, Orinya Sandra Otokpa
KEYWORDS:
Antioxidant, Lycopene, Ascorbic, Microbial, Dutsin-Ma
JOURNAL NAME:
Open Access Library Journal,
Vol.2 No.8,
August
25,
2015
ABSTRACT: Tomato varieties sold in Dutsin-Ma market namely,
UTC, Rukuta and Dan-Aka were subjected to drying in a laboratory oven, solar
drier and under direct sunlight then, powdered. The antioxidant and total
lycopene contents were examined and found to be unaffected by the three drying
procedures, with values
ranging between 68.46% ± 0.90% to 80.77% ± 1.11% and 123.63 to 161.98 mg/kg, respectively. The ascorbic acid was also
tested and values were significantly lower in all the samples subjected to sun-drying with values ranging
from 17.78 ± 1.78 μg/ml to 28.44 ± 1.78 μg/ml as against 100.15 ± 1.03 μg/ml to 164.74 ± 2.06 μg/ml for
oven and solar dried tomato samples (p 5 for bacteria
and 103 - 104 for fungi. While solar and oven drying presented better preservation of the tomato samples, the former
offers most incentive in terms of cost and quality to farmers and the people,
considering its free availability and abundance in processing dry tomato powders.