English

Abstract

Culcasia scandens P. Beauv is a tall climbering plant which grows abundantly in the southern part of Nigeria. It is acclaimed by traditional users to be a potent anti-inflammatory herb. Current study was designed to investigate the nutritional values of Culcasia scandens to rule out the possible therapeutic effects of the herb. The study was carried out by employing spectrophotometric methods for determining the overall nutritional content of the herb. The result of proximate analysis showed that the Culcasia scaudens had high levels of dry matter (91.17±0.01), carbohydrate (45.89±0.02), crude protein (21.71±0.01) and crude fibre 10.97±0.01 with relative low percentage of lipid (2.74±0.00), moisture (8.83±0.01). The result also recorded high levels of retinol (184.00±0.00), niacin (54.00) and folic acid (28.40±0.00) with low levels of ascorbic acid (0.08±0.01), thiamin (0.24±0.00), riboflavin (0.66±0.00) and tocopherol (1.03±0.00). The higher amounts of the proximate contents and vitamins indicated that besides the leaves are being used as traditional medicinal, this herb can serve as good source of nutrients to human as well.