By Mbaeyi, Ifeoma Elizabeth
In many developing countries such as malnutrition is a common dietary
problem, which is said to be endemic. It is characterized by micro-nutrient
deficiency and protein-energy malnutrition. Over the last few years, efforts have
been suggested by many workers as the ultimate solution to malnutrition. This
diversification involves the use of commonly known and consumed grains and/or legumes in more than one from and still meet the dietary need of the target consumers. There exist a lot of other locally available cereals and legumes that serves as good alternatives to these more popular industrial raw materials in use. Consequently, there is need for some baseline study on the use of underutilized grains/legumes to identify and evaluate their characteristics and potentials to serve as good alternatives in product formulation. Among the myriad of locally available examples are sorghum and pigeon pea whose use are limited to the household level though they may have potentials for uses. Sorghum (a cereal) is a rich source of carbohydrate and amino acids but deficient in lysine and tryptophan. Pigeon pea (as a legume) is cheap and contains a relatively high content of protein