Morpho-Phytochemical Composition of Sesame (<i>Sesamum</i>  <i>indicum</i> L.) Varieties Grown in Lafia, Nasarawa State, Nigeria

The study, Morpho-phytochemical composition of sesame (Sesamum indicum) varieties grown in Lafia, Nasarawa state-Nigeria. The experiment was conducted at the Botanical Garden of the Federal University of Lafia, Nasarawa State. Sesame varieties were obtained from National Cereal Research Institute Baddegi, Niger State. The varieties obtained include: GUJ BLACK, CHI001, and NCRIBEN 04E, NCRIBEN 05E and E8. The experiment was laid out in a randomized complete block design with three replications. Data were collected on the basis of Number of days for germination, Number of days to flowering, Plant height at flowering, Number of leaves per plant, Number of branches per plant, Number of branches at 50% flowering, Plant height at maturity, Number of pods per plant, Number of seeds per plant and 1000 seed weight. 30 g of sesame seeds from each varieties were grounded and analyzed for six proximate traits. Data were recorded for crude protein, crude fat/oil, fibre, mineral ash, moisture content and carbohydrate content. All proximate analyses were done according to Official methods of Associations of Analytical Chemist (AOAC). Data collected were subjected to ANOVA P ≤ 0.5. The varieties GUJBLACK and E8 performed very well in most of the morphological characterization such as days to germination, germination percentage, number of leaves, plant height, number of branches and 100 seed weight. Phytochemical composition of different varieties revealed that the variety GUJBLACK has the highest concentration of alkaloid, flavonoid, phenols, glycosides and saponin. The least varieties performance were observed in NCRIBEN 05E and NCRIBEN 04E.