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Other from South-east and North Central Nigeria

Okpehe / okpeye (fermented Prosopis africana seed, Nigeria)okpehe

Okpehe is a soup seasoning made from the seeds of the African mesquite tree, Prosopis africana. The seeds are boiled until soft, shelled by hand, then left in a leaf-lined basket in the sun for six to eight days while Bacillus bacteria break down the protein and the mash turns alkaline and pungent. The fermented seeds are moulded and dried into dark, strong-smelling cakes.

Fully documentedOther6 days – 8 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedMade mainly by small-scale producers at home. The sources give no amounts.
Prosopis africana seedsSorted, then boiled until soft[agunwah2024]
Okpeye leavesLine and cover the fermenting basket[agunwah2024]
Starterspontaneous

Total time across the recorded steps: 6 days – 8 days

Start
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What changes: Mesquite seeds boil in a pot until they are soft

Step 1 of 4
Sort and boil the seeds until soft
Time
Not documented
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: cooked seeds.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
soft
Colour
Not documented

Microbes at work in this step

Not documented for this step.

Method

Measured measured in a studySet fixed by a specification or tested recipeReported one source reports itTypical a general value, not sourced for this fermentUnconfirmed not yet checked against a source

At a glance

Okpehe is a soup seasoning made from the seeds of the African mesquite tree, Prosopis africana. The seeds are boiled until soft, shelled by hand, then left in a leaf-lined basket in the sun for six to eight days while Bacillus bacteria break down the protein and the mash turns alkaline and pungent. The fermented seeds are moulded and dried into dark, strong-smelling cakes. Made in 4 steps over 6 days – 8 days. The longest step, ferment in a leaf-lined basket in the sun, takes 6–8 days (Agunwah I.M 2024) and runs at 39.4 °C (Kalu A.U 2025). Bacillus, 47.4 % of 59 isolates from retail okpeye: B. amyloliquefaciens (in every sample), B. velezensis, B. tequilensis and B. licheniformis and Bacillus subtilis, B. amyloliquefaciens and B. licheniformis, in decreasing order of incidence among 50 strains do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step6–8 daysReported[agunwah2024]Ferment in a leaf-lined basket in the sun
Temperature39.4 °CReported[kalu2025]Ferment in a leaf-lined basket in the sun

What makes this one different

Unlike iru and dawadawa, which use locust beans, okpehe is made from African mesquite seeds, and it is usually fermented for six to eight days in a leaf-lined basket set in the sun.

Related ferments

Variants

  • Starter-culture okpehe (lab)Bacillus subtilis BFE 5301 (which makes subtilisin) with BFE 5372 gave good flavour and delayed B. cereus; with BFE 5372 alone, B. cereus could be found after 48 h.

Safety

Retail okpeye carries Bacillus cereus with toxin genes, and samples from three of six markets held high counts of staphylococci, which the study authors link to poor hygiene in production and sale. Histamine in market samples averaged at most 0.62 mg/kg. That study's authors say this is too low to poison most people but can affect people with histamine intolerance. Histamine-producing Gram-negative bacteria turned up in 25 of 240 samples, and E. coli, E. fergusonii and Shigella flexneri among them carried the Shiga-toxin gene stx2. The authors of both studies call for better hygiene during production and handling.

Hazards the sources name: Bacillus cereus in samples from every market; non-haemolytic enterotoxin genes in 70 % and the emetic gene cesB in 30 % of isolates; Bacillus cereus with enterotoxin genes, 20 % of strains; Histamine-producing Gram-negative bacteria (Pseudomonas, Escherichia coli, E. fergusonii, Shigella flexneri) in 25 of 240 market samples (10.5 %); the stx2 gene in the E. coli, E. fergusonii and S. flexneri isolates.

History and sources

Every number is labelled with how it is known. How this atlas is made

Okpehe is made mainly by small producers at home and sold in local markets. It is eaten in the south-east and north-central regions of Nigeria under the names okpeye, okpehe and kpaye (Agunwah 2024), and the Enugu-Ezike people call it okpee (Adonu 2026).

  1. [agunwah2024] Agunwah I.M., Ogueke C.C., Nwosu J.N., Anyogu A. 2024, Microbiological evaluation of the indigenous fermented condiment okpeye available at various retail markets in the south-eastern region of Nigeria, Heliyon 10:e25493paper
  2. [oguntoyinbo2010] Oguntoyinbo F.A., Huch M., Cho G.S., Schillinger U., Holzapfel W.H., Sanni A.I., Franz C.M. 2010, Diversity of Bacillus species isolated from okpehe, a traditional fermented soup condiment from Nigeria, Journal of Food Protection 73:870–878 (abstract)paper
  3. [oguntoyinbo2007] Oguntoyinbo F.A., Sanni A.I., Franz C.M., Holzapfel W.H. 2007, In vitro fermentation studies for selection and evaluation of Bacillus strains as starter cultures for the production of okpehe, International Journal of Food Microbiology 113:208–218 (abstract)paper
  4. [kalu2025] Kalu A.U., Wan-Mohtar W.A.A.Q.I., Noor W.S.A.W.M., Mohd Zaini N.A. 2025, Assessment of GABA enrichment and probiotic potential in fermented okpeye by Bacillus amyloliquefaciens AUK, Journal of Food Science and Technology 62:2291–2302 (abstract)paper
  5. [cyril2026] Adonu C., Urama S. et al. 2026, Molecular characterization of multi-drug resistant histamine-producing Gram-negative bacteria isolated from fermented Prosopis africana seeds (okpee) in Nigeria, Iranian Biomedical Journal 30:153–164paper