Chemical Analysis of Some Wild Underutilized Mucilaginous Vegetables and a Domesticated Vegetable in Benue State, Nigeria

Abstract

The chemical analyses of the vegetables; Abelmoschus esculentus, Ceiba pentandra, Cissus populnea and Corchorus oliterious were investigated to evaluate their nutritional potentials. The edible parts of the fresh and dried vegetables were pretreated and analysed for moisture, ash, crude; fibre, fat and protein as well as carbohydrate content while their energy values were estimated using standard methods. In addition, the mineral content was also evaluated using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometric technique. The result indicated the following range for nutrients in fresh samples; moisture content Original Research Article British Journal of Applied Science & Technology, 4(32): 4566-4574, 2014 4567 (86.0to 67.97)%; ash content (2.58 to 0.74)%; crude fibre (15.60 to 2.17)%; crude protein: (0.01 to 0.39)% and carbohydrate (2.53 to 20.90) %. For dried samples the nutrient content in the same order ranges from (17.83 t0 10.39)%; (11.44 to 15.60)%; (39.95 to 25.54)%; (0.04 to 1.37)% and (30.84 to 53.71)% respectively. The energy values ranges from (46.2 to 325.5) kJ/100g and (531.9 to 864.4) kJ/100g in fresh and dried samples respectively. Magnesium was the predominant mineral element among those evaluated while Mn, Ni, Cd, Pb, Zn and Cu were found to be present in relatively low amounts with no clear trend. The wild vegetables were found to be of good nutritional quality having met most of the requirements of regulatory agencies. The values obtained in this study are also in agreement with other studies on vegetables and thus can serve as a source of nutrition therapy for people with certain ailments.