European Journal of Biomedical and Pharmaceutical Sciences

PHYSICOCHEMICAL QUALITIES OF SPICES SOLD ON THE N’DJAMENA MARKET

Nadjioroum Ngam-Asra*, Brahim Boy Otchom, Mberdoum Memti Nguinambaye, Muganza Feza Mireille, Abdelsalam Tidjani

ABSTRACT

The present study aims to assess the physicochemical qualification by chromatography of the different species of spices sold on the N’Djamena market. This was a prospective, multisectoral study with an analytical aim on the different spices analyzed at CECOQDA in N’Djamena-Chad. AFNOR standardized methods were used. Data entry and analysis were done using SPSS software. The search for the degree of significance was obtained using Duncan's test at the 0.05 probability threshold. The high water content of fresh celery (75.80%), fresh pepper (55.28%), fresh garlic (49.54%) and fresh ginger (47.78) was significant. The low water content was observed for samples of dry garlic (06.63%) and dry ginger (07.06%)). Samples of fresh garlic and fresh ginger showed high ash content of 63.25% and 41.27%, respectively. In contrast, celery and pepper all fresh had an ash content of 12.4% and 13.43% respectively. A low ash content was obtained with the samples of dry ginger and dry garlic that had 05.52% and 05.59% respectively. Dried gingers contained a high level of lipids (7.80%) followed by fresh gingers and celery which had 3.54% and 3.00% of lipids, respectively. Total nitrogen content fluctuated between 0.53% for bell pepper and 4.05% for dry garlic. Thus, the garlic samples contained a significant amount of protein than other spices. In addition, dry garlic and dry ginger samples were observed to have higher protein levels than fresh samples. Spices constitute a protein supplement during culinary practices. Certain spices could be good sources of vegetable lipids and could be more valued, if their fatty acid profile present interesting nutritional qualities that deserve to be investigated.

Keywords: spices, physicochemical qualities, N’Djamena-Chad.