Proximate and Anti-nutritional Constituents of Abelmoschus esculentus Grown in Fadaman Kubanni, Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria

Aims: This work seeks to provide information on the proximate and anti-nutritional constituents of Abelmoschus esculentus (okra) grown in Fadaman Kubanni farms where effluents from Zaria Industrial Estate are discharged, and compare it with that grown in Rafin Yashi (control) in order to ascertain the effects of the effluent on the plant.
Study Design: Proximate and anti-nutritional constituent determination of Abelmoschus esculentusvegetative part and fruit samples.
Place and Duration of Study: This study was conducted between June, 2011 and May, 2013 in the Department of Chemistry, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Nigeria.
Methodology: Standard AOAC method was employed in the determination of moisture, ash, fat, crude fibre and oxalate constituents of the samples; carbohydrate content was obtained by the standard anthrone method; protein content was obtained by standard Biuret protein assay; phytate content was evaluated as specified by Reddy and Love while saponin content was obtained by Rathod and Valvi method. Results were expressed as the mean±SD of five replicate determinations, compared using Student t-test and the level of significance determined at P = 0.05.
Results: The mean obtained for moisture, ash, crude protein, fat, fibre and carbohydrate of okra vegetative part from Fadaman Kubanni (FP) were 14.36±0.20%, 11.62±0.23%, 22.87±0.13%, 13.70±0.21%, 14.46±0.32% and 37.56±0.18% respectively, while the values for fruits (FF) samples were 18.63±0.12%, 7.35±0.10%, 13.15±0.04%, 9.73±0.12%, 29.76±0.23% and 51.13±0.20% respectively. The phytate, oxalate and saponin composition of (FP) were 0.66±0.01 mg/g, 0.83 mg/g ± 0.01 mg/g and 0.23 mg/g ± 0.03 mg/g respectively, while (FF) values were 0.66±0.03 mg/g, 0.859±0.02 mg/g and 0.28±0.01 mg/g respectively. Comparison of the values obtained with the control and the standards for consumable fruits indicate that the analyzed samples have good nutritional values.
Conclusions: The effluents discharged did not adversely affect the fruit quality. However, there must be strict adherence to effluent quality by industries before discharging into the environment.