Indigenous Knowledge and Processing of Adansonia Digitata L. Food Products in Benin

Abstract

Indigenous knowledge related to baobab food products was investigated in Benin among 253 food processors from 15 ethnic groups. Descriptive statistics and correspondence analysis (CA) were used for data analysis. The following food categories were identified: dough, gruel, drinks (from pulp); sauces (from leaves, seeds and kernels), and flavouring agents (from kernels). CA showed that the food use of baobab parts varies among ethnic groups. Most ethnic groups have similar opinions about the difficulty of certain processing operations, in particular seed decortication, grinding and sieving operations for product recovery. Storage and preservation problems were mentioned for kernels and pulp.

KEYWORDS:

• baobab
• food uses
• processing
• storage
• ethnic groups
• Benin

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

The authors wish to thank the Netherlands Fellowship Program (NPP) through Nuffic PhD fellowship and CODESRIA through Codesria small grant for thesis writing, for their financial support, and Dr. Ir. Romain Glele Kakai for his help in statistical analyses.

Notes

SAS Institute Inc. SAS OnlineDoc®, Version 8, Cary, NC: SAS Institute Inc., 1999.