Comparative Study on the Nutritional and Anti-Nutritional Compositions of Sweet and Bitter Cassava Varieties for Garri Production

Abstract

A comparative study on the proximate, mineral amino acid and anti nutritional compositions of sweet and bitter cassava varieties was done to ascertain the nutritional quality and safety after 72 h of fermentation for garri production. The sweet cassava variety had higher moisture (8.04±0.74%), crude protein (23.51±0.50%), fat (10.01±0.02%), crude fibre (5.66±0.02%), and ash (0.44±0.10%) contents than the bitter cassava variety with moisture (7.23±0.39%) crude protein (22.74±0.16%), fat (9.54±0.01%), crude fibre (4.13±0.02%) and ash (0.35±0.02%) contents. Of all the minerals analysed, Ca, Mg, P, Zn and Cu had higher contents for the sweet cassava variety than the bitter cassava variety. The amino acid contents of the sweet cassava variety were higher than the bitter cassava variety. The contents of the anti-nutrients were higher for the bitter cassava variety with hydrogen cyanide (20.13±0.09 mgHCN/100g), oxalate (3.27±0.04 mg/100g), tannin (0.3±0.00%), phytate (62.4±1.29 mg/100g), alkaloid (0.32±0.04%), lignin (0.18±0.01 mg/100g) and saponin (0.13±0.01%) as compared to the sweet cassava variety with hydrogen cyanide (7.58±1.25 mgHCN/100g), oxalate (1.30±0.02 mg/100g), tannin (0.2±0.01%), phytate (53.7±0.81 mg/100g), alkaloid (0.27±0.02%), lignin (0.13±0.01 mg/100g) and saponin (0.13±0.01%). The higher nutritional quality and the lower anti-nutrients content demonstrate that the sweet cassava is a better variety for garri production to ensure better health and safety of the consumers.