THE NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION OF DIFFERENTLY PROCESSED ICACINA MANNII (EARTH BALL) MEALS
This study investigated the nutritional composition of differently processed Icacina mannii (earth ball) meals. The fresh Icacina mannii tubers were harvested, washed, peeled, milled and divided into four portions. A portion each was sundried, oiled, toasted and fermented and hereby referred to as SIM (Sundried Icacina mannii meal), OIM (Oiled Icacina mannii meal), TIM (Toasted Icacina mannii meal), and FIM (Fermented Icacina mannii meal). They were analysed for their: proximate, minerals, antinutrients, and fibre fraction compositions. The results obtained from proximate analysis revealed significant (P<0.05) differences among the treatments except for the gross energy content. The crude protein content ranged from 5.60% in OIM to 6.29% in TIM. Fat content ranged between 2.24% in FIM and 7.13% in OIM. The crude fibre ranged from 7.38 to 8.72%. The ash content ranged between 3.95 and 9.97%. FIM had the highest and the least values for nitrogen free extract (70.50%) and dry matter (90.25%) respectively. The gross energy (3.21 – 3.58 kcal/g) and manganese (0.48 – 0.52 mg/100g) were similar across treatments. The antinutrients (tannins, phytates, oxalates and hydrogen cyanide), macro and micro minerals analysed revealed that all the parameters measured were significantly (P<0.05) higher in OIM while the other processed methods also contained appreciable amount. TIM had the highest value of galactosamine. The fibre fraction decreases with the different processing methods, being lowest in OIM. From the results Icacina mannii should be processed before being used as a substitute for maize in animal feed most especially the fermented and sundried methods that helps in the reduction of hydrogen cyanide and galactosamine which are the most dangerous antinutrients in Icacina mannii tubers.
Keywords: Icacina mannii meal, sundried, processing, antinutrients and nutrient composition.
