Comparison of the Nutrient composition of four sweet potato varieties cultivated in Rwanda

Abstract

; mobile: +250 – 788530367 / + 250 -727111028 ABSTRACT Sweet potatoes (Ipomea batatas) are important nutritious staple crop in Rwanda. The aim of the study was to compare the nutritional composition of selected yellow and white sweet potato varieties cultivated in Rwanda. Two yellow varieties (Kwizekumwe, 440170) and two white varieties (Mugande and Rutambira 4-160) were used for the study. Estimation of moisture, ash, protein, crude fibre was conducted using standard AOAC procedures. Total reducing sugars and β carotene was determined by UV Spectrophotometric method. The study revealed that the moisture content in the sweet potato varieties was quite high and ranged between 62.58  0.42 to 64.34  0.42 .The crude protein (0.91  0.05) and total reducing sugar (2.50 ± 0.12) content was high in Kwizekumwe and were the least in 440170 variety with 0.7 ±0.03 and 1.74 ± 0.07 respectively. However, the 440170 variety recorded the highest in crude fibre (0.14 ± 0.00) and the least was observed in Rutambira 4-160 variety (0.11 ± 0.00). Crude ash was high in Kwizekumwe (0.44±0.07) while Mugande had the least ash content (0.40±0.02). β carotene content was present only in the yellow varieties but was found to be high in Kwizekumwe (1.85±0.00). Thus, Kwizekumwe was found to be more nutritious when compared to the other varieties.