Abstract
Kola nuts were regularly chewed by West Africans and Beninese in particularly. The aim of this study was to investigate nutritional and anti-nutrient content of three Benin’s kola nuts (Cola nitida, Cola acuminata and Garcinia kola). Proximate composition of the three species of kola nuts was assessed using standard analytical AOAC methods. Phenolics and flavonoids contents were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum trichloride methods, respectively. Mineral composition was determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry method. Free and total amino acids were separated and quantified by HPLC. Protein content of the three kola nuts ranges from 4.95% (G. kola) to 10.64% (C. acuminata) whereas fat content ranges from 0.2 ± 0.00 (C. nitida) to 2.5 ± 0.42 (G. kola). Total phenolics abounded (2444.96 ± 81.56 μg Eq AG/100g) in C. acuminata, while flavonoids predominated (561.69 ± 22.10 μgEqQ/100g) in G. kola. The three species are a good source of magnesium and a copper provider was lowest in C. nitida (0.59 ± 0.08 mg/g) and in C. acuminata (0.65 ± 0.02 mg/g). The dominant total essential amino acids were threonine (C. acuminata) and methionine (C. acuminata and G. kola), while the predominant non-essential total amino acids according to species were arginine (C. nitida and G. kola), proline (C. acuminata) and cysteine (G. kola). For the anti-nutrients factors, saponins were in great proportion (8.33% ± 0.25%), while the oxalates were in small proportion (0.44% ± 0.04%). The three species have an interesting nutritional composition, but these seeds have the relatively lowest amino acids content.
Highlights
Plants are important in human being everyday existence
The values obtained are on the one hand below those found by Ajai et al [32], which are between 20.62 - 22.50 for the three species, as well as those found by Odebumi et al [33] for C. nitida (66.40 ± 0.08) and G. kola (60.48 ± 0.06)
These values are above those obtained by Dewole et al [18] which obtained 9.73 ± 0.02 for C. acuminata and 9.81 ± 0.01 for C. nitida and 7.2 ± 0.08 for G. kola [1]
Summary
Plants are important in human being everyday existence They provide our foods, produce the oxygen that we breathe, and use as raw materials for many industrial products such as clothes, foot wears and so many others. Plants provide raw materials for our buildings and in the manufacture of dyes, perfumes, pesticides and drugs [1]. These plants contain the wild fruits currently used for their fruits, seeds, kernels, flowers, sap and other edible products. These elements are important in diets food and could powerfully help to solve or minimize the problems of food insecurity [2] [3]. The wild fruits are good sources of carbohydrate, calcium, magnesium and potassium [7] [8]
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