African Journal of
Food Science

  • Abbreviation: Afr. J. Food Sci.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN: 1996-0794
  • DOI: 10.5897/AJFS
  • Start Year: 2007
  • Published Articles: 978

Full Length Research Paper

Proximate and mineral composition of cocoyam (Colocasia esculenta L. and Xanthosoma sagittifolium L.) grown along the Lake Victoria basin in Tanzania and Uganda

Ndabikunze B. K. 1*, Talwana H. A. L 2, Mongi R. J 1, Issa-Zacharia A.1, Serem A. K3, Palapala V.4 and Nandi J. O. M5
  1Department of Food Science and Technology, Sokoine University of Agriculture, P. O. Box 3006, Morogoro, Tanzania. 2Department of Crop Science, Makerere University, P. O. Box 7062 Kampala, Uganda. 3Department of Agricultural Resources Economics and Marketing, Moi University, Box 1125-0100, Eldoret, Kenya.. 4Department of Biological Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology P. O. Box190-50100 Kakamega. Kenya. 5Department of Social Sciences, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology, P. O. Box190-50100 Kakamega. Kenya.
Email: [email protected]

  •  Accepted: 11 March 2011
  •  Published: 30 April 2011

Abstract

 

The proximate and mineral compositions of cocoyam (Colossian esculenta L. andXanthosoma sagittifolium L) grown along Lake Victoria basin in Tanzania and Uganda were analyzed. C. esculenta and X. sagittifolium samples were significantly (p < 0.05) different in terms of their proximate composition and mineral contents regardless of their country of origin. Proximate analyses included ash, crude protein, and crude fibre. Proximate composition of cocoyam results demonstrated that X. sagittifolium variety is nutritionally superior to that of C. esculenta. Minor nutrients measured were calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, sodium, zinc, manganese, and potassium. The results from these analyses demonstrate that the proximate composition of cocoyam produced in Uganda is substantially different from that produced in Kenya, regardless of the variety. Information  obtained from this study can be used to develop cocoyam based food products with enhanced nutrition and potential to promote commercial scale production and utilization of cocoyam in East African countries.

 

Key words: Colocasia esculenta, Xanthosoma sagittifolium, proximate composition, mineral content, Lake Victoria basin.

Copyright © 2024 Author(s) retain the copyright of this article.

This article is published under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License 4.0

Back to Vol. 5 No. 4
Back to articles
  • Articles on Google by:
SUBSCRIBE TO RSS
SUBMIT MANUSCRIPT
CONFERENCES