Physico-Chemical and Phytochemical Properties of Synbiotic Energy Bar Produced from Grains and Fruit

The need for a different variety of nutritious and gut-friendly energy bar geared this research to explore the (physico-chemical and phytochemical properties of novel synbiotic energy bar formulated from blends of fonio, coconut, tigernut, peanut, sesame seed and snot apple using gum arabic as binder while inulin was incorporated as prebiotic and fat replacer. The synbiotic energy bars were produced using the conventional method while inoculation, fermentation and sheeting were followed by vacuum drying and packaging. Physico-chemical properties shows pH (5.11-5.81), water activity (0.34-0.54) and hardness (2.34-4.48kpa). All the bars had good physico-chemical properties and did not differ significantly (p˂0.05) for most of the parameters analyzed except SSF which differed significantly (p˂0.05).Furthermore, nineteen phytochemicals were detected in the synbiotic energy bar samples using gas chromatography-flame ionization detector (GC-FID) and the ranges include ; dihydrocytosine (0.32-2.58µg), steroid (0.39-1.04µg), sapogenin (0.53-3.18µg), cardiac glycoside (0.27-0.72 µg), oxalate (0.13-0.85 µg), epihedrine (0.54-0.63 µg), cyanogenic glycoside (0.59-1.57µg), kaempferol (0.39-1.31µg), tannin (0.21-3.10µg), ribanilidine (0.61-1.48µg), flavones (0.18-1.25µg), anthocyanin (0.39-1.54µg), flavones (0.72-0.78µg), catechin (0.76-2.46µg), proanthocyanidin (0.76-1.28µg), narigenin (0.34-0.71µg), phytate (0.05-1.30µg) and spartein (0.23-0.83µg).The phytochemical composition of the formulated bars differed significantly at (p˂0.05) from the control sample (SSF).