Effect Of Processing On Nutritional And Antinutritional Composition Of Bear's Breech Leaves (Acanthus Montanus)

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%).