Some physical properties of kariya (Hildegardia barteri) nut/ kernel relevant to the design of its processing equipment

Kariya kernel is very rich in essential fats, oils and other valuable nutrients which may find applications in many food formulations. To harness these nutrients, processing equipment and machines are to be used. In order to effectively design these machines, the values of some physical properties of kariya nut and kernel are needed. In this study, some physical properties of the kariya nut and kernel were investigated. Results showed that mean major diameter, intermediate diameter, minor diameter and unit mass obtained at the nut moisture content of 19.83 ± 3.71 (w.b.) were 14.16 ± 0.79 mm, 10.17 ± 0.36 mm, 9.78 ± 0.28 mm and 0.503 ± 0.05g, respectively while the corresponding values obtained at the kernel moisture content of 8.89 ± 2.22% (w.b.) were 9.07 ± 0.72 mm, 7.32 ± 0.49 mm, 7.08 ± 0.41 mm and 0.328 ± 0.03 g, respectively. The values of calculated geometric mean diameter were 11.20 ± 0.33 mm and 7.77 ± 0.36 mm, for the kariya nut and kernel, respectively. The skewness value of the sample distribution of 0.08 and -0.24 were recorded for the kariya nut and kernel, respectively. The sphericity, surface area, volume, density, bulk density and porosity were 79.27 ± 3.07%, 394.75  ± 23.13 mm2, 738.37 ± 64.96 mm3 , 681.1 ± 20 kg/m3, 440.24 ± 0.04 kg/m3 and 36.65 ± 0.74% ; and 85.97 ± 5.27%, 189.85 ± 17.34 mm2, 246.71 ± 33.60 mm3, 1342.1 ± 136.23 kg/m3, 773.06 ± 0.06 kg/m3 and 42.28 ± 4.10% for the kariya nut and kernel respectively.