Mineral Composition, Antioxidant Properties, Phytochemical and Anti-nutrient Composition of African Palmyra Palm (Borassus aethiopum) Fruit Flour

African palmyra palm (Borassus aethiopum) grows widely across Africa. Previous studies indicated its fruit flour has a great potential in food applications. The objective of this work was to investigate the effect of different drying methods on the mineral composition, antioxidant properties, anti-nutrient composition and phytochemical composition of the African palmyra palm (APP) flour. The fresh fruit pulp was obtained, freeze dried, oven dried, solar dried and milled into flour. Phytochemical screening, mineral analysis, anti-nutrient analysis and antioxidant analysis were conducted on the flour obtained according to standard methods. The flour had high total phenols (1518.00 - 3896.71 mg GAE/100g), potassium (237.00 - 276.73 mg/100g), magnesium (211.61 - 293.62 mg/100g) and saponin (36.10 – 55.62 g/100g). The flour samples also had considerable free radical scavenging activities. Phytochemical screening indicated the presence of several phytochemicals including glycosides. Drying had a significant effect on the analysed composition of APP flour.