Cotyledons of two Nigerian varieties of bambara groundnut were analysed for trypsin inhibitor activity (TIA) and polyphenols after whole beans had, in each case, been cold-soaked, hot-soaked, cold-soaked/germinated and dehulled. Another portion of beans was fermented after they had been coldsoaked, dehulled and boiled for 10 min (pretreatment), simulating the "dawa-dawaΓ process. Germination made dehulling of the beans very easy, as the hulls broke open during the process, but was not very e β ective in reducing the polyphenol levels (9%, average loss) and TIA (17%, average loss). The combined pretreatment/fermentation process reduced the polyphenol level and TIA by 24% and 40%, respectively (average losses). Hot-soaking considerably improved the dehulling properties of the beans over cold-soaking and was more e β ective in reducing the TIA level in the cotyledons (31%, average loss) than cold-soaking (12%, average loss). Polyphenol losses by the two conditioning methods were similar (9%, average). Generally, losses in polyphenols and TIA could be attributed to leaching and inactivation respectively during the processes involved. The results show that a combination of two or more simple processing methods could be used to improve the food value of bambara groundnut.