Skip to main content
Support

Browse by category

All categories
Home

Other from Nigeria: Niger Delta

Owoh (fermented cottonseed)owoh

Owoh is a Nigerian soup condiment made by fermenting cottonseed, or sometimes African yam bean, with Bacillus bacteria. The seeds are boiled and dehulled, the cotyledons boiled again, ground and left to ferment for several days. Unlike iru it is used only in soup, not fried as a snack.

Fully documentedOther5.1 days – 5.2 days

Recipe

No fixed amounts recordedNo traditional amounts were found. The process numbers below come from two laboratory studies at the University of Ado-Ekiti.
CottonseedSorted to remove dirt and rotting seeds[Falegan2008]
African yam beanUsed instead of cottonseed in some places[Olanbiwoninu2026]
Starterspontaneous traditionally; laboratory studies used Bacillus subtilis starters

Total time across the recorded steps: 5.1 days – 5.2 days

Start
Drag the bar or press Play

What changes: Whole cottonseed boils for an hour, then the hulls come off

Step 1 of 4
Boil the whole cottonseed and dehull it
Time
1 h
Reported
Temperature
Not documented
Salt
None given
Acidity
Not documented
Which microbes the steps name, step by step
Bacillus

Output: cotyledons, washed and sorted again.

Flavour
Not documented
Texture
Not documented
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

Owoh is a Nigerian soup condiment made by fermenting cottonseed, or sometimes African yam bean, with Bacillus bacteria. The seeds are boiled and dehulled, the cotyledons boiled again, ground and left to ferment for several days. Unlike iru it is used only in soup, not fried as a snack. Made in 4 steps over 5.1 days – 5.2 days. The longest step, ferment warm, takes 5 days (Falegan C.R 2008) and runs at 37 °C (Falegan C.R 2008). Bacillus subtilis, which gave the best owoh of the species tested and Bacillus licheniformis and B. pumilus, earlier reported in owoh fermentation do most of the fermenting.

Key numbers
Main step5 daysReported[Falegan2008][David2007]Ferment warm
Temperature37 °CReported[Falegan2008][David2007]Ferment warm
AciditypH 5.1–7.3Measured[Falegan2008]Ferment warm

What makes this one different

Owoh is made from cottonseed, not locust bean. Naturally fermented owoh measured pH 7.30 in one study [Falegan2008].

Related ferments

Variants

  • African yam bean owohMade from African yam bean instead of cottonseed [Olanbiwoninu2026].

Safety

Cottonseed contains gossypol. A 2014 review says gossypol toxicity limits cottonseed use in animal feed, that heat lowers free gossypol, and that free gossypol can be released from its bound form during digestion [Gadelha2014]. It gives impaired reproduction as the most common toxic effect, and notes a sharp drop in births in rural China in the 1950s, where people ate cottonseed oil containing gossypol and male infertility was the first explanation [Gadelha2014]. No source we read measures gossypol in owoh. US rules for modified cottonseed products sold as human food cap free gossypol at 450 parts per million; the rule does not name owoh [cfr172894]. Falegan and David say owoh made by chance inoculation is exposed to contamination by pathogens [Falegan2008].

History and sources

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

In 2008 Falegan and David described owoh fermentation as still a family art that relies on chance inoculation, which gives an inconsistent product and was their reason for testing Bacillus subtilis starters [Falegan2008]. A 2026 review places owoh in the Niger Delta, among the Urhobo and Itsekiri [Olanbiwoninu2026].

  1. [Falegan2008] Falegan C.R., David O.M. 2008, Starter culture development for the production of owoh, Biosciences Biotechnology Research Asia 5(1)paper
  2. [David2007] David O.M., Falegan C.R. 2007, Effect of fermentation on cottonseed oils, Journal of Pure and Applied Microbiology 1(2)paper
  3. [Olanbiwoninu2026] Olanbiwoninu A.A., Awotundun T.A., Afolabi J.F., Fashogbon R.O., Fagunwa O. 2026, Ethnogeographic distribution of Nigerian fermented foods and the prospects for bioeconomy improvements, Foods 15(17):3087, doi:10.3390/foods15173087paper
  4. [Gadelha2014] Gadelha I.C.N., Fonseca N.B.S., Oloris S.C.S., Melo M.M., Soto-Blanco B. 2014, Gossypol toxicity from cottonseed products, The Scientific World Journal 2014:231635paper
  5. [cfr172894] US Code of Federal Regulations, Title 21, section 172.894, Modified cottonseed products intended for human consumptiongov