Indigenous Knowledge And Evaluation Of Nutritional Quality Of ‘Qocqoca’the Spiced Chilli Based Paste From Jimma Rare District, Ethiopia

Abstract

Pepper contains a variety of important chemicals, including water, fixed (fatty) oils, steam volatile oil, carotenoids, capsaicinoids, protein, fibre, and mineral elements; these chemicals are important for nutrition as well as flavour, colour, and aroma. Thus, this study was aimed to assess the indigenous knowledge in production as well as the nutritional quality of 'Qocqoca,' a spiced Chilli-based paste from the Jimma Rare District Horo Guduru Wollega zone in Ethiopia. We used descriptive and experimental research designs. Four kebeles were purposefully selected for this study, and 192 mothers were drawn at random from these kebeles for questionnaires, surveys, and FGDs. In addition, eight Qocqoca samples (two from each sampled kebele) were collected and analysed at Ambo University's Laboratory of Biology Department. The moisture content was determined using a hot air oven at 102C0 . A digital pH meter was used to determine the pH of the Qocqoca sample. TTA was evaluated using titration with 0.1 N NaOH. A UV/Vis spectrophotometer was used to determine the pungency test, total phenolic content, and ascorbic acid of the Qocqoca samples. The mean frequency and amount of Qocqoca produced per family were 1.63±0.39 times and 12.76±0.67g per day, with the Gamada and wayu kebeles having the highest frequency and production, respectively. The average frequency and amount of consumption accounted for 1.4±0.24 times and0.64±0.57gram per family per day, respectively. The majority of them, 62%, 87.00%, 55.20%, and 67.20%, respectively, did not know the nutritional value, exact storage time, how to store, or the proportion of the ingredients to be used. About b54.70% did not wash the ingredients before using them. Similarly, 88% of them do not dry and instead save the Qocqoca for later use. Family size was the only factor that significantly affected the preparation and utilization of Qocqoca products in the study area (p<0.05). In other words, the types of ingredients, proportion, processing method, storage time, season, family background, and weather condition were the factors influencing Qocqoca quality (p<0.05). Knowledge of production, family income, availability of ingredients, family size, types of food, societal perception of nutritional benefit, storage time, and agro-ecology were the factors influencing Qocqoca consumption (p<0.05). The pH value of the Green (5.49±0.01) is higher than the Red chilli-based paste; the Green Qocqoca samples has higher ascorbic acid (41. 80 ± 3. 11) than the red; the antioxidant activity of red Qocqoca (263.22±4.67) had higher than green chilli paste; total Phenolic content of Green Qocqoca was also higher (262.23±0.32) than the red chilli based paste. The results of functional property analysis showed significant difference among the products both Qocqoca based chilli paste (p<0.05). In general, the findings of this study revealed the nutritional quality of the Qocqoca samples from the study area also varied, with the green based samples having a higher overall nutritional quality than the red based samples.