Abstract: To carry out proximate analysis and heavy metal assessment of dried moringa leaves in order to ascertain their nutritional and metal content values. Fresh leaves of moringa oleifera lam were plucked from moringa trees growing at Egbooda, Oshiri in Onicha area of Ebonyi State, Nigeria. The period of sampling was for 2 weeks in the month of March, 2013. The leaves were air dried at room temperature and their proximate contents determined using standard analytical techniques. Ash and moisture contents were determined using the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) method. Fat, crude fibre and protein content were determined using soxhlet fat extraction method, weende's method and kjeldahl method respectively. In addition, carbohydrate content was determined using arithmetic difference method. Results show that the mean nutritional content of the samples were: 24.5% protein, 14.8% moisture, 17.3% crude fibre, 4.5% Fat, Ash 3.8% Ash and 50.6% carbohydrate. Heavy metal composition was assessed using spectrophotometric and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) titrimetric methods. The results indicated that Ca and Cd were not detected in the leaf samples. The metal contents in the leaves were Fe (505 mg/L), Zn (85,810.951 mg/L), Cu (1.016mg/L), Mg (386.555mg/L), Mn (79.563mg/L) and Pb (352.013 mg/L).
Keywords: leaves, moringa oleifera, nutritional value, proximate analysis.
[1] J.M. Dalziel, The Useful Plants of West Africa. Grown for Oversea Government and Administrations (London: 4 mill Bank, 1955) 186-88.
[2] F.R. Irvine, The woody Plants of Ghana with special references to their uses. 2nd ed. (London: Oxford University Press, 1961) 868.
[3] D. Odee, Forest biotechnology research in drylands of Kenya: The development of Moringa Species, Dryland Biodiversity, 2, 1998, 7-12.
[4] H.P.S. Makkar, K. Becker. Nutrient and anti-quality factors in different morphological parts of the Moringa oleifera tree, Journal of Agricultural Science, 128, 1997, 311-322.
[5] L.J. Fuglie, Combating Malnutrition with Moringa, in J. Lowell, L.J. Fuglie (Ed.), The Miracle Tree: The multiple attributes of Moringa (Wageningen, the Netherlands: CTA publication. 2006) 117-36.
[6] C.G. Zarkada, H.D. Voldeng and Y.K. Yu, Determination of the protein quality of three new northern adapted cultivars or common and mico types soya beans by amino acid analysis. Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, 45, 1997, 1161-1168.
[7] B.J Alloway and D.C. Ayres, Chemical principles of Environmental Pollution, 3rd ed., (London: Blacker Academic and Professional Publishers, 1993) 201-202.
[8] APHA, Standard Methods for the Examination of Water and Waste water, 13th ed., (New York: American Public Health Association, 1971) 391-400.
[9] AOAC, Official Methods of Analysis of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists, 16th ed., (Arlington, Virginia: AOAC International, 1995)
[10] G.I. Onwuka, Food Analysis and Instrumentation: Theory and Practice (Lagos: Naphthali Prints, 2005) 1-219.
