Abstract

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of disorders that affects haemoglobin, which causes distorted sickle-or crescent-shaped red blood cells. It is characterized by Anaemia increased susceptibility to infection and episodes of pain. Beetroots and almond were processed, incorporated in soybean powder used as bulk and given to a panel of 10 people for sensory evaluation.

The sensory evaluation form used was the 9-point hedonic scale and the respondents were randomly selected from amongst lecturers and students in MAFLEKUMEN University of health science Tiko, Fako division. The mean scores obtained for appearance, taste texture and aroma for sample A (folic acid supplement with the use of beetroot and soybean) were 6.2, 5.7, 7.0 and 5.7 while for sample B (folic acid supplement with the use of almond and soybean), the mean scores for the same attributes were 7.4, 7.4, 6.7 and 6.6 respectively.

The overall acceptability was 6.15 and 7.03 for samples A and B respectively. The almond supplement was found to be greatly acceptable compared with the beetroot.

1.4 Specific Research Question

1. Can folic acid supplement for sickle cell anaemia be produced using almond?
2. Can folic acid supplement for sickle cell anaemia be produced using beetroot?

1.4.1 Rationale

Sickle cell disease (SCD) is a group of disorders that affects hemoglobin, which causes distorted sickle-or crescent-shaped red blood cells. It is characterized by anaemia increased susceptibility to infection and episodes of pain.

Cameroon has a high carrier frequency of sickle cell disease (20-30%) as reported by the WHO, (2014). It is the 6TH country with the highest number of sickle cell births per year. 37% of cases die at night including 11% who die while asleep and has an overall mortality rate if 30-35%.

Sickle cell cannot be cured, but with proper care and management, the health of patients can be improved. For now, children and adult with sickle cell anaemia, commonly take 1 mg of folic acid orally every day on the premise that SCD need more folate because they produce more red blood cells to compensate for anaemia and reduce symptoms of anaemia.

The available options are either not regularly available or when available are unaffordable to the local population. It is, therefore, necessary to search for more relief options which are cheaper and more available with higher patient acceptability.

1.5 Main Objective   

The main objective of this work was to produce folic acid supplements for sickle cell anaemia from almonds and beetroot.

1.6 Specific Objectives

1. To produce folic acid supplement using almond for sickle cell anaemia.
2. To produce folic acid supplements using beetroot for sickle cell anaemia.
3. To carry out a sensory evaluation of the produced supplements.

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