Nutritional, Antinutritional Compositions And Organoleptic Analyses Of Raw And Blanched Cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta) Leaves.

Abstract

This paper highlights the nutritional and antinutritional compositions of raw and blanched cocoyam leaves (Colocasia esculenta). Succulent immature leafy part of cocoyam was harvested in fresh condition from a farmland in Emmanuel College, Samonda, Bodija Area, Ibadan, Oyo State, Nigeria. The leaves were divided into two parts; one was blanched at 80 0 C for 5mins and the other used on raw basis. Nutritional analysis results reveals that the raw and blanched samples in % contained 88.5 and 76.9 moisture, 2.7 and 8.4 protein, 0.4 and 0.5 fat, 2.5 and 3.1 ash, 2.8 and 2.7 crude fibre, 3.1 and 8.4 carbohydrate, 15(mg/100g) and 8mg/100g Vitamin C, while the  carotene values were 16mg/100 and 22mg/100 respectively Antinutritional analysis result revealed that the tannins, phytate and oxalate values (mg/kg) in raw and blanched leaves were 34.5 and 25.5, 27.0 and 12.0 and 55.2 and 22.5 respectively. The results revealed that leaves contained appreciable quantity of nutrients, vitamin and low level of antinutrients which was further reduced by blanching. Organoleptic analysis results revealed that there was no significant difference among the sample in term of all the parameters evaluated since F-calculated values were smaller than Q-factor (3.01) at 5% significant level. This therefore presents the leaves of Colocasia esculenta as a good dietary supplement.