Effect of Processing on the Chemical and Anti-Nutritional Properties of Cassava Leaves (Sweet and Bitter Varieties)
Anim Ekpo Ujong, Faith Deede, Baridia, A Fasuyi, G Subbarao, O Ito, R Serraj, J Crouch, S Tobita, S Omosuli, A Oresegun, O Fagbenro, P Ilona, E Bernard, S Jamil, A Bujang, D Ngudi, Y Kuo, F Lambein, G Ravindran, V Ravindran, J Bradbury, I Denton, D Pearson, K Bembem, B Sadana, J Weber, V Bochi, C Ribeiro, A Victorio, T Emmanuelli, B Ersoy, A Ozeren, A Morris, A Bametta, O Burows, F Okibe, B Jubril, G Paul, Shallangwa, Y Dallatu, Z Rehman, W Shah, A Osman, G Francis, H Makkar, K Becker, G Savage, L Martensson, A Banso, S Adeyemo, C Esenwah, M Ikenebomeh, A Hagerman, C Robbin, Y Weerasuriya, T Wilson, C Mcarthur, P Agbaire, C Ikemefuna, J Obizoba, J Atii
Abstract
The effect of processing on the chemical and anti-nutritional properties of cassava leaves was investigated. Leaves of cassava (bitter and sweet varieties) were subjected to boiling, steaming, microwaving, dry-roasting and unprocessed cassava leaf which was used as control. The leaves were analyzed for proximate, mineral and anti-nutritional composition using standard methods. The proximate analysis revealed that microwaving resulted to a significantly (p<0.05) higher retention of ash (3.28% and 2.74%), protein (11.3% and 12.08%), and carbohydrate (12.95% and 19.45%) for sweet and bitter cassava leaves, respectively while the moisture content increased significantly (p<0.05) for boiling. Result of the mineral analysis also revealed that boiling and steaming resulted to a significant (p<0.05) decrease in magnesium, iron, zinc, calcium and potassium contents while these nutrients were highly retained following microwaving except for zinc which was highest in the control sample. Anti-nutrient analysis result showed that phytate, oxalate and tannins were significantly (p<0.05) higher with microwaved cassava leaves while boiling caused a significant (p<0.05) reduction. However, the levels of these anti-nutrients were low. This study therefore shows that processing methods such as boiling tremendously reduced the anti-nutrients with significant loss in the nutrients while microwaving retained the nutrient content with acceptable level of anti-nutritional factors.