Cyanide Levels In Soil And Two Cassava Varieties (TMS 98/0581 and TMS 98/0505) Cultivated In Katagum Local Government, Bauchi State, Nigeria.

Cyanide consumption is said to be harmful to humans and animals. Cassava is a naturally cyanide containing tuber. The objective of this paper was to investigate cyanide levels in soil and two cassava varieties (TMS 98/0581 and TMS 98/0505) cultivated in Katagum Local Government, Bauchi State, Nigeria using various standard methods. Cyanide content was quantified in raw and boiled cassava's parenchyma, cortex, and periderm, alongside soil used to cultivate the cassava. Data obtained found that soil was found to have cyanide content at the ranges of 2.440±0.037mg/kg for TMS 98/0505y to 8.279±0.038 mg/kg for TMS 98/0505b. For both varieties, the highest level of cyanide was found in cortex of TMS 98/0505b from Busuri. The analysis of variance (ANOVA) shows no significant difference at p˃0.05 between the mean values of the cyanide contents of these samples. These values are above the permissible limit set by WHO/FAO 10mg/kg except that of boiled TMS 98/0505y from Yayu village. This highlights the need for proper boiling/processing of cassava tubers to mitigate cyanide poisoning risks.