Proximate Composition and Amino Acid Profile of Raw and Processed Seeds of Jackbean (Canavalia ensiformis) (L) (DC)

Abstract

An experiment was conducted to determine the proximate and amino acid composition of both raw and processed seeds of Jackbean (JB). The proximate composition of raw and processed JB were similar, with the exception of crude fibre and ash content. The crude fibre of JB dropped from 7.80% in the raw seeds to 5.20% in the processed JB, also ash content of raw JB dropped from 3.73% to 2.80% in the processed JB. Processing resulted in a decrease in the levels of most of the amino acids, except for histidine, cystine and value, which were improved through processing. Histidine increased from 6.23g/ 16gN to 7.98g/ 16gN, cystine from 1.35g/16gN to 2.39g/16gN and value from 2.62g/16gN to 3.35g/16gN in the raw and processed JB seeds respectively. Among the essential amino acids, histidine was observed to have the highest concentration in JB. Lysine was found to be high in JB, 4.48g/16gN in raw and 3.81g/16gN in the processed JB. The most limiting amino acid in JB was found to be methionine 0.46g/16gN in the raw seeds and 0.32g/16gN in the processed seeds. There is therefore need for methionine supplementation in diets containing JB.