ABSTRACT

The proximate, phytochemical and mineral compositions of Bear's breech (Acanthus monatanus) leaves were evaluated. The washed/drained leaves were air-dried for 2 hand oven dried (50 °C for 3 h). The leavessample were milled and used for analysis on driedsample. The results for the proximate composition of the leaves showed that the leaves boiled for 5 min (60.13%) had the highest moisture content.The leastconcentration of crude protein of the leaves boiled for 5 min was recorded as (0.70), while the highest value was recorded for fresh leaves( 1.19). For the crude lipids, the highest treatment was recorded for dried leaves (2.32%).The crude lipids contents of all the samples treatments were significantly different (p<0.05 ).The highest concentration for crude fiber was recorded for fresh leaves (3.83%), followed by the ash content which was alsoobserved for fresh leaves (2.03%), the carbohydrate content of the leaves ranged from (31.02% to 86.32%). The results of the phytochemical composition showed the dried leaves had the highest oxalate concentration (6.03 mg/1 OOg). The oxalate contents on all the treatments were significantly different (p< 0.05). The highest concentration of Saponins was recorded for fresh leaves(5.33 mg/l OOg). The highest flavonoid content was observed for dried leaves ( 4.28%). Anthocyanin content of the leaves ranged from(l.98% to 0.72%). The mineral composition showedthat the leaves contained Calcium (I.OJ% to 0.96%), Magnesium content on the dried leaves was the highest 1.04% while the leaf boiled for 20min was the least (0.96%). The dried leaves (2.47%) contained the highest amount of Sodium but was not significantly different from the fresh leaves (2.46%).