Chemical, vitamin and amino acid compositions of kunu zaki produced from selected Nigeria-grown underutilised cereals

• Published in: Discover Food
• Main Authors: Mujidat I. Zakariya, Grace O. Babarinde, Emmanuel A. Akande
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Springer 2025-07-01
• Subjects: Kunu Zaki; Underutilized cereals; Chemical composition; Amino acids
• Online Access: https://doi.org/10.1007/s44187-025-00530-3

Abstract Kunu zaki is a traditional non-alcoholic fermented beverage produced from major cereals such as sorghum, white pearl millet and guinea corn. Overdependence on some popular cereal grains such as maize, pearl millet and sorghum, especially in the production of fermented beverages, has called for research into more indigenous, nutritious, and underutilized cereals such as gero, maiwa, acha white, acha black and finger millet to prevent them from going into extinction. This study, therefore, investigated the quality of kunu zaki produced from some selected Nigeria underutilized cereals grains. Kunu zaki was produced from five varieties (maiwa, acha white, acha black and finger millet where gero kunu zaki served as control) of underutilized cereal, and each sample was analysed for its vitamin, mineral and amino acid contents. The ranges of values obtained for vitamins BI, B2, B6 and B12 were 7.40–11.30, 13.35–27.60, 1.05–46.85 and 0.55–7.91 (µg/100 g), respectively. The calcium, iron, potassium, and manganese concentrations ranged from 11.12 to 19.16, 3.68–5.65, 0.13–0.88 and 0.00-14.36 ppm, respectively. The amino acid contents identified were lysine (0.02–8.74 mg/100 g), valine (12.21–18.58 mg/100 g), threonine (2.17–6.68 mg/100 g), tryptophan (0.16–11.03 mg/100 g), isoleucine (15.41–23.73 mg/100 g), histidine (0.24–36.22 mg/100 g), leucine (0.06–22.98 mg/100 g) and methionine (0.47–0.73 mg/100 g). Kunu zaki produced from non-conventional cereals (maiwa, acha white, acha black and finger millet) showed better nutritional composition than the conventional pearl millet (gero) kunu. Hence, underutilized local cereals can be exploited in kunu zaki production to increase their utilization and reduce over-dependence on pearl millet.