Abstract
The extrusion process has been employed to produce functional foods (snacks) with application as potential agents to manage diverse physiological effects, such as antioxidant, anti-diabetic, anti-inflammatory, etc. Thus, this study developed extruded snacks from maize, pigeon pea and groundnut flour blends, while evaluating the bioactivities (antioxidant properties, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitions) of the extruded snacks. Samples were produced by using a single-line pilot-plant extruder as follows: DOLA 1 = 100% maize flour (Control); DOLA 2 = 70.34% maize flour + 21.50% pigeon pea flour + 8.16% groundnut flour; DOLA 3 = 55.65% maize flour + 35.32% pigeon pea flour + 9.03% groundnut flour; DOLA 4 = 45.28% maize flour + 45.61% pigeon pea flour + 9.11% groundnut flour, respectively. The snacks were subjected to hydroxyl, DPPH radicals scavenging, metal chelation, FRAP, α-amylase and α-glucosidase inhibitions assays. The extruded snack sample DOLA 4 had greater activities (58.05, 55.37, 54.84% and 0.53 mmol Fe2+/ mg) than the other samples DOLA 1 (10.07-11.43%, 0.04 mmol Fe2+/ mg), DOLA 2 (38.29-39.01%, 0.39 mmol Fe2+/ mg) and DOLA 3 (42.74-46.03%, 0.48 mmol Fe2+/ mg) but was significantly (p<0.05) lower than ~80.43%, 0.87 mmol Fe2+/ mg obtained for ascorbic acid. The ability of these snacks to increase the oxidative stability greatly contributed to good glycemic control and general carbohydrate metabolism. This is significantly (p<0.05) confirmed through their potentials to inhibit the excessive hydrolytic activities of α-amylase and α-glucosidase (about 20-40% for composite snacks), while resultantly lowered the blood glucose during diabetic health management. We then concluded that extruded snacks with bioactive properties could be produced from maize flour + pigeon pea flour + groundnut flour, without posing any negative health side effects after consumption.