Nutritional and Anti-nutritional Evaluation and Phytochemical Composition of Aqueous Leaf Extract of Mucuna pruriens

The numerous ethno-medicinal properties of Mucuna plant have called for a serious research investigation of all the various parts of the plant including the leaves in order to ascertain maximum utilization of the plant. In this prospective study therefore, nutritional and antinutritional evaluation and phytochemical composition of aqueous leaf extract of Mucuna pruriens were carried out using standard methods in order to determine the potential of this part of the plant. The result of the proximate analysis indicated the presence of the following nutrients: crude lipid(2.2%), protein(35.0%),crudefiber(12.5%),carbohydrate(42.6%) and ash content (7.8%) and the following anti nutrients:phytate(236.90mg/100gsample),oxalate(43.30mg/100gsample),haemagglutinin(98.4 0HU/mg protein) and trypsin inhibitor(26.30TIU/mg protein) while the energy value was 255.3Kcal/100g sample. The results of the phytochemical analysis revealed the presence of alkaloids, saponins, tannins, flavonoids, glycosides, phenols, anthraquinone, terpenoids, coumarine while steroid was absent. It was also observed from the results that M. pruriens contains the following minerals: iron(0.388ppm), magnesium(0.123ppm), calcium(0.925ppm), zinc(0.360ppm), copper(0.468ppm), manganese(0.413ppm), sodium(0.440ppm), potassium(16.430ppm), selenium(0.012ppm) and the following vitamins: vitamin A(40.79mg/100g sample), vitamin B1(29.58mg/100g sample), vitamin C(43.60mg/100g sample) and vitamin E(22.70mg/100g sample).These results have shown that M.pruriens leaf extracts have pharmacologically active compounds and high nutritional value and as such could be used in ethno-medicine and as alternative source of feed for animals and could equally be consumed by humans after quality processing in order to remove its anti-nutrient content.