Locust bean was found to be a protein rich crop whose seed is processed into local food condiment 'iru' in Nigeria. To explore the possibility of developing handling and processing equipment for the seed, some engineering properties namely: size, 1000 seed weight, true density, bulk density, porosity, static coefficient of friction on wood, angle of repose, specific heat and cracking force, were studied. At a moisture content of 10.25% (db), seed length varied from 0.80 to 1.20 cm, width from 0.60 to 0.85 cm and thickness from 0.45 to 0.60 cm. One thousand seed weight averaged 0.283 kg with a standard deviation of 0.00264. True density lay between 1098.0 and 1215.7 kg/m(3), while bulk density was between 538.02 and 565.30 kg/m(3) and porosity was between 51.0% and 53.5%. Static coefficient of friction on wood averaged 0.43 with a standard deviation of 0.021, angle of repose 20.32degrees with a standard deviation of 1.84 and specific heat 1415.3 J/kgK with a standard deviation of 103.81. Minimum cracking force was obtained by loading the seed along its thickness. This force averaged 174.38 N with a standard deviation of 10.21. These results indicate that a mechanical dehulling process to obtain whole kernel from locust bean seed should be possible. (C) 2002 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.