Nutritional quality of uncultivated cereal grains utilised as famine foods in western sudan as measured by chemical analysis

Abstract

AbstractThe chemical composition of the grain of a number of wild grasses used as food in times of famine in western Sudan are reported and compared with those of the local staple cereals. Species investigated were Cenchrus hiflorus (haskaneet). Dactyloctenium aegyptium (korecb). Echinochloa colona (difra) and Oryza punctata (ruz el wadi). The grain of all species except C biflorus had protein contents in the range 110‐140 g kg−1, broadly similar to those of the local staple cereals. The grain of C biflours possessed a particularly high protein content of 210 g kg−1. The nutritional quality of the proteins as measured by their chemical scores ranged from 20 for C biflorus to 65 for O punctata compared with scores of 36 and 58 for the local sorghum var Kurgi and millet respectively. Lysine was the limiting amino acid in all cases. Whilst the composition of the protein of sorghum var Kurgi was typical of sorghum generally, that of var Karamaka was unusual in possessing lysine levels of 3.4 g (16 g N)1, double that normally present in sorghum and raising the chemical score of the protein to 62.The ash content of the famine food cereals was high, attaining 113 g kg1 in C biflorus. All grains were good sources of zinc and D aegyptium. O punctata and E colonum additionally contained comparatively high levels of iron. Remarkably for a cereal D aegyptium was also very rich in calcium, containing over 10 g kg1, and possessed high concentrations of manganese.Carbohydrate content of the famine food grains varied from 617 g kg1 for C biflorus to 748 g kg1 for O punctata, values comparable to the local staple cereals. The proportion of starch in this fraction ranged from 650 g kg1 in D aegyptium to 940 g kg1 in O punctata. Seed oils of all species were predominantly unsaturated containing mainly oleic and linoleic acids.