Antinutrient Compositions of Nine Cocoyam Varieties grown in Port Harcourt, Rivers State

Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott belonging to the Araceae plant family is an important tuber food crops in Rivers State. The antinutrient compositions of cocoyam grown in Port Harcourt is understudied due to lack of scientific researches, hence this study aims at investigating the antinutrient compositions of cocoyam varieties. This study was carried out at the Research plot, Department of Plant Science and Biotechnology, Rivers State University, Rivers State. Nine varieties (NXe001, NXe002, NXe003, NCe004, NCe005, NCe006, NCe007, NCe008, NCe009) of cocoyam were gotten from National Root Crops Research Institute (NRCRI) Jos, Nigeria and sown into polyethene bags field with 20kg loam soil and allowed to grow for 6 months. Cultural practices were done at intervals when necessary. Antinutrient analysis of harvested corms for phytate, tannin, oxalate, saponin, alkaloid, glycosides, flavonoid, phenolics, amino acids and fatty acids was done using the methods described by Association of Analytical chemists (AOAC). Phytate, tannin and oxalate were revealed to be highest (5.13+0.00; 14.75+0.00 and 18.86+0.00) in NCe008 and lowest (3.47+0.00; 9.98+0.00 and 12.77+0.00) in NCe004 respectively. Saponin content was more (9.54+0.00) in NCe008 than other varieties with NXe001 recording lowest (6.08+0.00). alkaloid content amongst all varieties had highest content (9.75+0.00) and lowest (1.00+0.00) in NCe007 and NCe006 respectively. Highest (2.51+0.00) and lowest (1.35+0.00) values of glycoside content was recorded from NXe002 and NCe009. Flavonoid content was lowest (35.35+0.04) in NCe009 and highest (44.39+0.00) in NCe008 compared to all varieties studied. Phenolics revealed that NXe002 and NCe004 as the highest (103.7+0.00) and lowest (52.06+0.00) values. Amino acid content amongst all varieties shows that NCe008 had highest (7.97+0.00) contents and lowest (3.25+0.00) contents recorded in NCe005. Fatty acid content was recorded to be highest (1.96+0.00) and lowest (0.67+0.00) in NXe002 and NCe007 respectively. The result reveals that cocoyam corms contain bioactive compounds which are effective against numerous health related risk factors which can help to develop cocoyam food products and to promote productivity and utilization by encouraging its sustainable use and thus can rival other conventional vegetables normally consumed in Nigeria.