Temperature and Variety Effects on Antioxidant Retention of Abotem, Aborohema, Omankwa, Abeleehi and Dorke SR

The study evaluated the influence of variety and temperature on the retention of nutrient antioxidants, vitamins A and E of Abotem, Aborohema, Omankwa, Abeleehi and Dorke SR varieties of maize. The exact retentions (mg/100mg) were computed using the yield expressed as a ratio of the absorbances dilution factor to the weight of the sample. The loss of vitamin A contents as the temperature increased from 30˚C to 60˚C was found to differ in the order Omankwa (2.759mg/100mg)>Aborohema (2.679mg/100mg)>Abotem (1.665mg/100mg)>Dorke SR (0.996mg/100mg) >Abeleehi (0.865 mg/100mg). Better retention of vitamin A occurred at the soaking temperature of 30˚C. In contrast, better retention of vitamin E was achieved at the soaking temperature of 60oC. The increase in vitamin E contents were in the order Abotem (1.984mg/100mg)>Aborohema 1.886mg/100mg) > Abeleehi (0.973mg/100mg)>Omankwa (.941mg/100mg)>Dorke SR (0.2283mg/100mg). Soaking caused changes to the quantities of vitamins A and E retained after soaking, but the changes were influenced by variety and soaking temperature. The change in vitamin A content of soaked maize within the temperature range of 30˚C - 60˚C followed a zero-order kinetics reaction equation, with a regression coefficient of the kinetic model between 0.95 and 0.99.