Proximate compositions of Ipomea aquatic Forsk. (leaf, petiole and stem) from Lubok Bungor, Jeli, Kelantan

Abstract

Water spinach has been recognized as a rich source of minerals, bioactive compounds, vitamins and antioxidants. Its importance has attracted a lot of scientific research to assess their nutrients content. In this study, three parts of water spinach, namely: leaf, petiole and stem were examined. The objective of this study was to determine the content of crude protein, fat, carbohydrate, ash, fibre, moisture content and pH in leave, petiole and stem of water spinach. The differences of the nutritional content between the water spinach parts were then compared. Based on this study, stem contained the highest concentration of crude protein (4.36±0.05 g/100g), fibre (6.02±0.20 g/100g) which is significantly difference from the other two parts, and to some degree, fat (2.36±0.20 g/100g), even though with non-significance difference with petiole. High amounts of carbohydrate (7.53±0.92 g/100g) is recorded in the leaf, which is highly significant from the stem and the petiole and is incline towards alkalinity as indicated by the pH value (6.11±0.02 g/100g). The petiole is significantly rich in moisture (79.26±0.54 g/100g) compared to leaf & stem. Whilst, petiole has the highest percentage of crude ash 10.29±0.75 g/100g, which is significantly different from the leaf at 8.69±0.75g/100g but remains non significance to the stem at 9.75±0.37g/100g. This study showed that stem of water spinach has the most complete nutrients in the form of crude protein, fat and fibre compared to petiole and leaf, and is available all year round.