ABSTRACT
Hydrocolloids isolated from the flour of peels of selected root and tuber crops were purified and their physicochemical properties were determined using standard procedures. The experimental materialused was the peels of three species of Dioscorea: alata(water yam), dumentorum(trifoliate yam), rotundata (white yam) and bulbifera(aerial yam); Colocasia esculenta(cocoyam); white and yellow flesh of Ipomoea batatas(sweet potato). The fresh peels were dried under three drying method (oven, sun and air-dried). Proximate composition gave 4.4 to 10.7% for moisture content, 0.40 to 6.10% for ash content, 0.32 to 4.13% for crude fibre and in carbohydrates it ranges from 81.3 to 93.7%. There were no fat and protein in the experimental samples. Oven-dried alatapeel flour gave the highest swelling indexvalue 1.44% while, air-dried had the highest value of (4.00%) ranking the highest in foaming capacities. The highest in water and oil absorption capacities were sun-dried (2.05) dumentorumpeel and rotundatapeel air-dried (2.21). In emulsifying capacity and freezing-thawing stability, the highest results were observed in colocasia peel oven-dried (54.3%) and white flesh Ipomoea batataspeel sun-dried (74.3%).Yellow flesh Ipomoea batatas(0.31 g/ml) gave the lowest in bulk density. Gelation temperature ranges from 70 to 83ºCwith pH of 6.6 to 7.6.