Abstract
The amount of cyanide in fresh and cooked tuber parenchyma (pulp) of three cultivars of sweet cassava from two local government areas (LGA) of Benue state was studied. Cassava tubers were collected and carefully peeled to obtain the pulp. The fresh and boiled samples were adequately processed and treated with ninhydrin, Na2CO3 and NaOH and the absorbance of the reaction product measured using UV-Visible spectrometer after construction of a calibration graph using standard cyanide solutions. The amount of cyanide in the fresh pulp varied with differences in cultivars ranging from White Dan-Warri Cultivar: (19.87 to 28.81) mg/kg; Obasanjo cultivar: (17.23 to 28.81) mg/kg and Red Dan-Warri Cultivar (8.23 to 19.31) mg/kg. Also, the cyanide content of cultivars from Oju LGA was generally higher than that of the cultivars from Gwer-east LGA. Cyanide content varied with the period of the day harvested in the order: Afternoon > Evening > Morning for all cultivars. Furthermore, cooking greatly reduced the cyanide content of all the sweet cassava cultivars but boiling was more effective than roasting with the cyanide removal increasing with increase in cooking time. The cyanide content of the tuber parenchyma of the sweet cassava cultivars was very low (<30 mg/kg) which is in agreement with reported values for sweet cassava. However, cooking at a reasonable time interval will further reduce their cyanide levels to further safe limits.
Highlights
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a root crop from the family of Euphorbiaceae which has its origin from Latin America and was later introduced into Asia and Africa [1]
Following the adverse effects associated with cyanide content in cassava even after processing, the present study investigated the cyanide content in the tuber parenchyma of fresh sweet cassava cultivars grown in Benue State Nigeria where the crop is greatly consumed
The concentration of cyanide in the tuber parenchyma of the cultivars grown in Oju and Gwer-East Local Government Areas (LGA) of Benue State varied among cultivars and locations
Summary
Cassava (Manihot esculenta Crantz) is a root crop from the family of Euphorbiaceae which has its origin from Latin America and was later introduced into Asia and Africa [1]. As earlier reported by Jogensen et al [5], the foremost shortcoming associated with cassava crop are: low protein content, rapid tuber perishability following harvest and high content of cyanogenic glycosides. Following the adverse effects associated with cyanide content in cassava even after processing, the present study investigated the cyanide content in the tuber parenchyma (pulp) of fresh sweet cassava cultivars grown in Benue State Nigeria where the crop is greatly consumed. It further evaluates the effect of time of harvest, roasting and boiling on the residual cyanide content in the pulp of the fresh tubers of these cultivars
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