Research Notes: Harnessing the nutritional benefits of pineapple pulp fiber to enhance antioxidant potential of wheat flour

Abstract Pineapple pulp fiber is highly palatable but is usually wasted during the processing of pineapple juice resulting in a loss in the pineapple value chain. It is known to contain both soluble and insoluble dietary fiber, antioxidants, vitamins, bromelain, and many important minerals. Changing lifestyles associated with most western diets characterized by excess intake of calories has led to increased incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in Africa. Moreover, hyperglycemia in diabetes mellitus is linked to increased generation of reactive oxygen species (ROS) leading to oxidative stress. ROS are known to damage cellular macromolecules including oxidation of lipids and nucleic acids. The need to formulate dietary formulas to achieve both reductions of calories with enhanced antioxidant potential inspired us to design a wheat flour-based formula enriched with pineapple pulp fiber of up to 10% of its weight. Pineapple pulp fiber-enriched wheat flour positively impacts the pineapple value chain. This study aimed at determining the antioxidant potential of the pineple pulp fibre enriched wheat flour. Pineapple pulp fiber-enriched wheat flour was prepared by mixing 10 g of dry and milled pineapple pulp with 90g of all-purpose wheat flour. The total polyphenolic content, total flavonoid content, and ferric reducing antioxidant power of the enriched and non-enriched wheat flour were determined using spectrophotometric method. The results were statistically analysedusing t-tests at a p < 0.05 level of significance. Enrichment of wheat flour with pineapple pulp fiber significantly increased the total polyphenolic content (p = 0.001), total flavonoids content (p = 0.002), and Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP) (p = 0.001) of the flour. These results indicate that pineapple pulp fiber has a potential to enhancing the nutritional quality of wheat flour through added antioxidant properties.