Comparative Studies of the Nutritional and Phytochemical Constituents of African oil baen (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth) and African bean (Anthonotha macrophylla) for Human Consumption

Abstract The powdered crude sample of African Bean (Opagha in Yoruba Language) (Anthonotha macrophylla) and African oil bean (Pentaclethra macrophylla Benth) were subjected to nutritional, phytochemical and mineral analysis using standard experimental procedures to see whether Anthonotha macrophylla, a totally neglected plant seed in west Africa, could serve as close substitute to African oil bean, usually used for human consumption due to its nutritional value. The nutritional composition of Anthonotha macrophylla  revealed the presence of carbohydrates (62.600±0.01%) ,moisture content (9.50±0.01%) ,ash content (3.55±0.01%), crude fat (1.60±0.02%), crude fibre (2.30±0.01%), crude protein (20.30±0.01%) and Vitamin C was 52.017±0.01 mg/100g while the Phytochemical evaluation revealed the presence of alkaloids (6.40±0.01), tannins (0.350±0.02), saponins (1.96±0.01), oxalate (1.582±0.01) and phytate (4.325±0.01) in g/100g and the mineral contents in mg/kg of Anthonotha macrophylla were sodium (241.00), potassium (178.50), magnesium (1075.00), iron (19.00), calcium (35.00), manganess (13.00), cupper (59.00) and Zinc (71.00) respectively. Also, the nutritional composition of African Oil bean (Pentaclethral macrophylla benth) revealed the presence of carbohydrates (8.125±0.01%), moisture content (13.250±0.01%) ,ash content (2.70±0.01%), crude fat (46.10±0.01%), crude fibre (6.50±0.01%), crude protein (22.575±0.01%), and the Vitamin C content  was 67.941±0.01 in mg/100g while the phytochemical analysed revealed the presence of alkaloid ((11.24±0.01), tannins (0.950±0.02), saponin (3.20±0.01), oxalate (1.387±0.01), and phytate (1.174±0.01), all in g/100g and the mineral content in mg/kg were sodium (457.00), potassium (8700.00), magnesium (6100.00), iron (72.00), calcium (64.00), manganese (45.00) copper (not detected), and zinc (24.00 )in mg/kg respectively. African bean has very high percentage of carbohydrates, which reveals its high calorific value than African oil bean, this show that after proper fermentation, it can be utilized as food. The phytochemical parameters of African bean according to this study are lower than that of African oil bean, which is commonly consumed as food.

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Updated: June 25, 2023 — 9:48 am