Nutrient potentials of underutilised plant species in Nigeria

The chemical compositions of some underutilised plants parts (green leafy vegetables, fruits, seed oils and spices) collected from different locations in Oyo and Osun States of Western Nigeria were determined by standard analytical methods in effort to evaluate their nutrient potentials. Among the seven green leafy vegetables, crude fibre, crude fat, crude protein and nutritive calorific values ranged from 2.39 to 6.14 g/100g, 8.75 to 30.19 g/100g, 8.75 to 30.19 g/100g, 261.55 to 373.96 Kcal/g. The vitamin C composition varied from 24.6 to 502.2 mg/100g. Macro and micro elemental analysis in mg/100g dry matter revealed that calcium, potassium, iron and zinc ranged from 286.5 to 3361, 76.4 to 2037, 0.012 to 160 and 11.5 to 63.4 mg/100g. Among the five fruits part, crude fibre, crude fat and crude protein (g/100g) ranged from 7.85 to 16.79, 0.78 to 40.00 and 5.25 to 11.38; vitamin C varied from 156 - 953.33 mg/100g. Ficus exasperata fruit contained the highest level of calcium, potassium and iron; Gardenia erubescens lowest sodium and manganese, Cola millenii mesocarp had highest level of magnesium, sodium, manganese and zinc. The fatty acids profiles of the seed oils revealed that Telfairia occidentalis contained more linoleic acids than soybean and only Cola millenii contained omega-3 fatty acid, docosahexanoic acid (DHA). Among the spices, onion outer scale peel had highest level of oleic acid, onion top-bottom peels had highest linoleic acid and only Syzygium aromaticum had highest level of linolenic acid and DHA. The levels of anti-nutrients in the samples were low to be of health threat. The results established a basis for continuous evaluation of the agro-biodiversity to identify food crops with promising nutrient potentials that could complement the commonly consumed ones to enhance sustainable livelihoods.