Analysis of physicochemical properties of two varieties of sorghum biscuits fromThe Kingdom of Lesotho

Sorghum bicolor belongs to the Graminae family. The common name of S. bicolor is sorghum. The grains of S. bicolor are used to prepare variety of food products and these grains are served as a staple food for approximately 500 million people in more than thirty countries. Various classes of secondary metabolites have been reported from the grains of S. bicolor. The presence of these secondary metabolites in S. bicolor has been responsible for its biological and pharmacological activities. The objective of the present study was to analyze the physicochemical properties of two varieties sorghum of biscuits viz. sorghum nutty biscuits (SNB) and sorghum ginger biscuits (SGB) that are sold in the Kingdom of Lesotho. The physicochemical properties of these two varieties of biscuits were analyzed as per the established procedures outlined in the literature. The analyzed physicochemical properties are listed below and the determined values are given in brackets for SNB and SGB, respectively. The pH (9.27±0.02 and 8.37±0.11), moisture content (17.6±0.76 and 6.21±0.19%), crude fiber content (2.99±0.09 and 4.48±0.12%), crude protein content (17.37±0.01 and 6.61±0.01%), crude fat content (11.13±0.41and 20.20±0.70%), carbohydrate content (48.89±0.91 and 60.83±0.69%), ash content (2.24±0.06 and 1.67±0.22%), total solids content (82.37±0.76 and 93.79±0.19%), total solids non-fat content (71.23±0.62 and 73.59±0.73%) and gross energy (1526.83±6.01 and 1887.56±4.25 kcal/100 g of sample). Most of the determined values of physicochemical properties of these two varieties of biscuits were within the acceptable ranges as reported in the literature. From this study, we concluded that both SNB and SGB sold in the Kingdom of Lesotho have nutritional contents that are beneficial to health.