This work was aimed at evaluating the proximate composition, some anti-nutritional factors and functional properties of composite flour produced from wheat, pigeon pea and unripe plantain. Four blends of composite flour were formulated by homogeneously mixing wheat flour, pigeon pea flour and plantain flour in the proportion of 95:5:0 (WPF), 85:10:5 (WPU1), 75:15:10 (WPU2), 65:20:15 (WPU3), respectively, while WHF represented 100% wheat flour served as control. The result of proximate composition signified that there were significant (p<0.05) increases in crude protein (13.25-16.10%), moisture (6.30-10.41%), ash (0.62-1.69%) and crude fibre (0.42-1.13%) content with the inclusion of pigeon pea and plantain flours. Significance reductions in crude lipid (2.84-1.82%) and carbohydrate (76.56-68.85%) contents were observed while energy value was not significantly (p>0.05) different from the control. The anti-nutrient composition of the blends showed significant reduction of HCN (10.71-8.87 mg/100g), oxalate (180.08-90.04 mg/100g) and tannin (13.02-10.23 mg/100g) contents while highest value (1.35 mg/100g) of phytate was observed in WPU2. Bulk density, foaming, water absorption and oil absorption capacities ranged 1.20-1.30 g/ml, 3.70-13.79%, 6.20-6.60 g/g, 6.00-6.40 ml/ml, respectively while swelling index ranged 28.50-32.00 ml/ml. This study showed that fortifying wheat flour with pigeon pea and plantain flours is a significant way of improving nutritive quality, especially the protein and also increased the functionality of the blends when compared with the control.
Keywords: Capacities, Control, Flour, blends, unripe plantain
