ABSTRACT

Fresh leaves of Heinsia crinita were bought from Akwa Ibom State and dried. Analysis for 1 proximate, vitamins and mineral compositions were carried out in the raw leaves and after the first, second, third, fourth and fifth fourteen days of storage. The result showed that storage significantly , decreased (p> 0.05) both the proximate, vitamins and mineral composition of the leaves as the storage period increased except for the dry matter which increased significantly at (p< 0.05) as the storage period increases. The proximate composition shows that dry matter ranged from 88.83% to 93.44% while moisture content ranged from 6.56 to 11.16%. Ash content ranged from 5.10% to 5.40% while crude protein ranged from 10.18% to 12.47%. Lipid content ranged from 5.86% to 6.45% while crude fiber ranged from 3.11% to 3.85%. Vitamins showed that vitamin A ranged from25l.60iu/100g to 309.75iu/100g, while vitamin Bl ranged from 0.50mg to 0.87mg.Vitamin B2 ranged from 0.42mg to 0.79mg, while Vitamin B3 ranged from 0.07mg to 0.28mg.Vitamin C ranged from I0.35iu/l00g to 16.51iu/100g, while Vitamin E ranged from 2.68iu/l 00g to 3.42iu/l 00g.Mineral composition shows that calcium ranged from 20.6mg/g to 22.82mg/g, while sodium ranged froml37.17mg/g to 14l.82mg/g. Potassium ranged from 7l.27mg/g to 80.72mg/g, while iron ranged from 5.05mg/g to 7.43mg/g. Zinc ranged from 7 .61 mg /g to I 1.05 mg/g. This shows that storage decrease the most of nutrient composition of Heinsia crinita. Therefore taking fresh Heinsia crinita could be a better way of utilizing the nutrient composition rather than storing in a longer time as it may reduce the nutrients in the leaf ..