COMPARATIVE PROXIMATE ANALYSIS OF DRY UZUAKI (AFRICAN YAM BEAN) AND DRY OKPA (BAMBARA NUT)

The issue of malnutrition alleviation can simply be dealt with by proper understanding and awareness of the food we eat, thus this research work was aimed at evaluating the proximate component of Bambara groundnut and Uzuaki and to assess their potentials in dealing with protein under nutrition prevalence in Nigeria. From the results of this study in Table 1, the composition of the two plant shows that they are not good source of protein with the protein content accounting for 0.631% and 0.114 %% for uzuaki and bambara groundnut respectively. The carbohydrates, fibre and fat content in the uzuaki nut were 55.836%, 33.7 and 5.2%; and that of Bambara nut were 38.442%, 43.1% and 9.0%. This shows that there are big differences between the two legumes in terms of the content of carbohydrates. However, there is a marginal difference in their fibre and fats. All these may be due to genetic differences. The low moisture content of 0.624% and 0.451% for Bambaranut and uzuaki respectively showed that the grain has a high storage potential. The results also reveal that Bambara nut (43.1%) contain high fibre than uzuaki (33.7%). Bambara groundnut and uzuaki still exhibit great potential as cash crops most notably groundnut, which are grown in mixed association with other root tubers. From this study, the two legumes offer nutritional and health benefits to ever-increasing populations of the developing world.