Effect of drying on nutritional and anti-nutritional composition of solanum torvum

Abstract

The Solanum torvum fruits are used generally in Ghanaian food preparations because of the conviction that they are very nutritious and boost the blood level of lactating and nursing mothers, pregnant women and anemic patients. The post-harvest losses of turkey berry (Solanum torvum) are of higher rate in the country so this work sought to investigate how these post-harvest losses can be minimized by drying it and popularise the plant or crop so that farmers will cultivate it and get more money. The main aim of this work was to determine the physiochemical properties of Solanum torvum fruits. Proximate analyses of dried powdered fruits were therefore performed by using the AOAC (200) (Association of Official Analytical Chemists). Atomic Absorption Spectroscopy analysis of essential minerals was performed to ascertain the concentrations of iron, magnesium, phosphorus, and sodium in the fruit. The results indicated that the fruits possess high moisture content (78.34±1.22). The values for the other parameters checked were fat 0.57±0.03 %, fibre 4.34±0.94%, protein 3.01±0.11%, ash 1.04±0.05 % and carbohydrate 12.70%. The results for minerals were iron (12.90 to 14.85mg/100g), magnesium (0.019 to 0.036mg/100g), phosphorus (0.093 to 0.135mg/100g) and sodium (0.055 to 0.208mg/100g). The values for antinutrient are as follows tannins (0.61 to 0.75mg/100g), phytate (1.42 to1.65mg/100g), oxalate (0.34 to 0.50mg/100g) and saponin (0.48to 0.65mg/100g). The high iron content of the fruits proves the fact that the fruits truly have hematinic property. These results obtained show that Solanum torvum fruits when dry do not only conserve the fruits but also increase the nutritive composition per gram with the exception of moisture content.