International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Melese Temesgen, Negussie Retta, Etalem Tesfaye

Abstract
The objective of this study was designed to investigate the nutritive and non- nutritive constituents of taro leaf powder and leaf curd extracts through improved processing methods. The study was conducted using factorial combination of two independent variables (taro leaf varieties and processing methods) with three replications in a completely randomized design (CRD). The analysis undertaken in this study was leaf proximate composition, mineral concentration and anti-nutritional factors of samples processed as leaf powder and curd concentrates between local taro and boloso-1 taro varieties. The moisture content in the study ranged from 3.444 ± 0.192 to 3.733 ± 0.693, crude protein from 25.061 ± 1.297 to 26.252 ± 1.530, crude fat from 5.835 ± 0.169 to 6.436 ± 0.889, fiber from 3.192 ± 1.988 to 4.597 ± 1.396, total ash from 2.706 ± 0.074 to 2.876 ± 0.230, total carbohydrate from 56.221 ± 2.743 to 59.383 ± 2.942, amylose contents from 5.319 ± 1.159 to 6.276 ± 0.987, beta- carotene (mg/100 g) 2.703 ± 0.225 to 2.480 ± 0.205 and phenolic compound(mg/100 g) from 0.957 ± 0.087 to 1.113 ± 0.188. The five macro minerals, mg/100 g of Na, K, Mg, P and Ca in the study differ significantly (p<0.05) and ranged from lowest (6.607 ± 1.055, 14.333 ± 1.470, 8.293 ± 1.899, 1.179 ± 0.81 and 15.265 ± 6.211 respectively) to highest (7.826 ± 1.827, 17.017 ± 3.4, 9.744 ± 1.908, 1.904 ± 0.995 and 19.547 ± 6.69) value, respectively. Concerning micro minerals like Zn, Fe, and Cu contents, mg/100 g were significantly (p<0.05); varied from minimum (9.647 ±rn4.550, 40.374 ± 9.831 and 0.415 ± 0.194) to maximum (12.750 ± 1.811, 51.868 ± 17.025 and 0.580 ± 0.221) values, for boloso-1 taro variety, respectively. From the general trend observed in this study, most of the analyzed samples that boloso-1 taro variety subjected to curd processing provided better proximate, mineral, functional and lower anti-nutritional contents than that of the local taro leaf.