Introduction
Ukpo (Mucuna Sloanei) is among one of the legume found in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. It is food thickener known to originated from Asia and was introduced into the western hemisphere (Akpata, 2001), it is known as horse eye bean and with other local names in respect to different tribes and ethic groups. It is called Ukpo by Ibos, “Karasuu” by Hausas and “Yerepe” by Yourbas (Ayozie 2010). The belong to the legumes family. They are other species of mucuna throughout tropical regions of the world including Mucuna urensi, Mucuna Pruriens and mucuna veracrua (Ezueh and mozie, 2004).
Nutritionally, the important of mucuna sloanei (UKPO”) lies in high content of protein and lysine. They are usually limited in sulplur contaning amion acids partially methioine. They are better source of phoshorus, but calcium (Okaka et al, 2006). Ukpo (Mucuna sloanei contain 20.0-25.4%, crube protein, 43.3% -49%, CHO, 5.05-7.0% fat, 25.0-27.4% crube fiber and about 6.4%-14. moisture (Akpata and machi, 2001.
Ukpo (Mucuna Sloanei) is used in preparing various soup as soup thickener (Udensi, 2004). When the seeds are cracked the cotyledons of the seeds are boiled, sufficiently to soften them and grineded into power in the eastern part of Nigeria. They are sometimes broken the seeds and the colyledons were roasted with hot ash, grinded and used as soup thickeber. In addition to their thickening property Ukpo has gelation properties used in soup. This is a desirable attribute for eating of garri, Fufu, pounded yam etc. it has been reported that the nutritive value of some mucuna utiles have been improbed by heat treatment due to the reduction of their anti-nutritional factors content by them (Manssour et al 1993) Ukachukwu and Udesi 2002, et al, 2004).
Food thickeners as consumed by millions of people in Nigeria. Thickening agents or thickeners are substance which when added to a mixture increase its viscosity without substantially modifying aroma. They increase stability and also improve suspending action of a mixture. Currently, they are produced on a cottage industry, scale which vares from one ethic groups and locality to another.
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