Consumers' demand for ready‐to‐eat extruded snack is increasing due to their convenience and time saving. Extrusion cooking is the most commonly used technology for manufacturing ready‐to‐eat snack products. However, improper management of extrusion parameters such as the barrel temperature, feed moisture content, pressure, and other parameters of the extruder can influence the quality of extruded snack foods. This paper aimed to review the effects of extrusion process conditions on the quality of the extruded snack. According to this review, most of the nutritional composition and anti‐nutritional factors are sensitive to the extruder's high barrel temperature. High barrel temperature decreased the anti‐nutritional factors of the extrudates. Low feed moisture content and high barrel temperature minimize the bulk density and hardness while increasing the extruded snack's expansion ratio and water solubility index. In contrast, low barrel temperature increased the color and appearance of the extrudates while decreasing the flavor and overall acceptability of the extrudates. In general, this review indicated that extrusion processing parameters need to be optimized to deliver nutrient‐rich extruded snack with appropriate physical, functional, and sensory properties.

Pigeon pea is one of the most multipurpose grain legumes in the tropical and subtropical world. It is highly resilient to climate change due to drought tolerance. It ranks sixth following common beans, chickpeas, field peas, cowpeas, and lentils globally. Pigeon pea is an excellent source of high‐quality protein, essential amino acids, and minerals. Furthermore, pigeon pea is endowed with valuable water‐soluble vitamins such as thiamin, ascorbic acid, riboflavin, and niacin. With low levels of saturated fat and sodium and being cholesterol free, pigeon peas emerge as a nutritious dietary choice. Pigeon peas are rich sources of bioactive compounds with various potential health properties, including anti‐inflammatory, antibacterial, antioxidant, anticarcinogenic, and antidiabetic effects. Pigeon peas can be consumed in diverse forms, including whole seeds, split seeds (known as dhal), vegetables using green seeds, and fresh pods. Moreover, pigeon peas find application in a variety of food products, including bread, pasta, noodles, snacks, and biscuits. Despite their nutritional and medicinal properties, pigeon peas remain among the least utilized legumes globally. This review paper aims to provide up‐to‐date information on the nutritional compositions, bioactive compounds, food applications, and health benefits of pigeon peas.

Globally, there is a growing concern about avoiding using artificial compounds in food ingredients, food preservation, and packaging. Among the parts of the neem tree, leaf flour is one of the most commonly used parts in some countries for food and medicinal purposes and is known for containing several nutrients and phytochemicals. In this review, the proximate composition, phytochemical constituents, potential uses, and safety issues of neem leaf flour are discussed. Neem leaf flour contains high levels of crude protein, total carbohydrate, crude fat, and fiber and moderate amounts of crude fat and ash. In addition, it contains numerous health‐promoting phytochemical constituents. Some phytochemicals, such as ascorbic acid, saponin, total alkaloids, carotenoids, total phenols, total flavonoids, and the total antioxidant capacity of neem leaf flour, have been critically discussed. Neem leaf flour has various potential applications in food science, such as preserving foods and preparing food packaging materials. However, researchers' perspectives on its safety are not yet in agreement. In general, the proximate compositions, phytochemical constituents, potential uses, and safety issues of neem leaf flour were compiled and critically reviewed. In addition, research is needed to identify all the toxic substances found in neem leaves and develop methods to eliminate them that hinder their use for various purposes in food. Further research is needed to develop food products from neem leaf flour and evaluate its nutritional value and phytochemical constituents.

Dawrach (Raphanus raphanistrum L.) is an underutilized wild edible plant belonging to the Brassicaceae family. Dawrach is widely regarded as a weed, and there is a lack of information about its nutritional profile such as, proximate, antioxidant properties, health-promoting vitamins, minerals and significant phytochemicals. The plant also contains anti-nutrients which need a pretreatment to be minimized and deteriorating enzymes that should be inactivated to make shelf stable products. Blanching temperature is the most critical factor that needs great attention during the blanching process to minimize the anti-nutrients and minimize the loss of desirable components of Dawrach such as, proximate and phytochemical contents and antioxidant activity. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the influence of blanching temperatures on the proximate, phytochemicals and antioxidant activity of Dawrach leaves. The parameters were evaluated following standard analytical methods and procedures. Dawrach leaves were blanched at 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 °C temperature for 3 min, and raw or unblanched Dawrach was used as a control. Blanching temperature significantly affected the proximate, phytochemicals, antioxidant activity and anti-nutrients of the Dawrach. As a result, the moisture content of raw and blanched at 90 °C was 10.77 and 7.69 g/100g, respectively. Thus, blanching decreases the moisture content of Dawrach to the recommended safe moisture level for the products. Moreover, there was a significant decrease in the values of antioxidants activities, beta carotene, and l-ascorbic acid as the blanching temperature increased from 50 to 90 °C. Besides, as blanching temperature increased, there was a reduction in oxalate and tannin of the Dawrach leaf.

Garcinia buchananii is a tropical wild edible plant that is locally consumed in the Southern Nations, Nationalities, and Peoples Regional state of Ethiopia. However, there is limited information comparing nutritional, phytochemical, and anti-nutritional factors present in fruit pulps and seeds of the fruit. Therefore, this study aimed to investigate and compare the proximate compositions, phytochemical constituents, and anti-nutritional contents of the fruit pulp and seeds. Data analysis was conducted using SPSS software version 20. The proximate analysis revealed that the pulp had higher moisture content (80.52 %) compared to the seed (42.4 %), whereas the seed contained more crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber and carbohydrate. However, the phytochemical constituents were relatively more abundant in the pulp compared to the seed. The pulp exhibited higher levels of total phenolic content (31.62 %), total flavonoid content (22.27 %), ascorbic acid (0.67 %), and inhibition percentage (15.31 %), but was lower in beta-carotene (4.60 %). The fruit seed has higher anti-nutritional values than the pulp. Overall, the pulp and seeds of the Garcinia buchananii fruit are nutrient-rich and can be used in food product development and formulation. Being high in moisture content and low in anti-nutritients the pup of the plant can be utilized in the form of juice.

Investigating the effect of drying temperature on the quality of the leaf and petiole parts of Figl is essential to use the leaf and petiole for food formulation or as food ingredients in developing countries to overcome the problem of food security. In this study, the effect of drying temperature (27.20 ^° C ± 2.1 ^° Cor in the sun, 40°C, 50°C, and 60°C) on drying rate, moisture diffusivity, color, and functional and chemical properties of the leaf and petiole was investigated. A two‐way analysis of variance was performed using a Statistical Analysis System to evaluate the effect of drying temperature on the drying characteristics, color, and chemical and functional properties of the leaves and petioles of Figl. The effective diffusivity values changed from 4 × 10 ⁻¹² to 8.2 × 10 ⁻¹² m ² /s and 2.1 × 10 ⁻⁰⁸ to 4.9 × 10 ⁻⁸ m ² /s for the leaf and petiole of Figl, respectively, within the given temperature range. The bulk densities of the leaf and petiole of Figl were in the range of 0.20–0.35 g/mL and 0.27–0.41 g/mL, respectively. The results indicated that drying rate, moisture diffusivity, water activity, ascorbic acids, and delta decreased with drying temperature, whereas the functional properties of both the leaf and petiole increased with drying temperature. Comparatively, the petiole part showed better results in terms of functional and chemical properties than the leaf at all drying temperatures. From the results of the study, in terms of functional and chemical properties, drying of the petiole at 50°C for 120 min was found to be the optimum temperature for better quality.