Nutritional Potentials of Water Hyacinth (Eichhornia crassipes)

Abstract

The study investigated the nutritional potentials of Eichhorniacrassipes, commonly known as water hyacinth. Proximate analysis showed that the leaf contained the highest percentage of crude protein (21.44+1.15%), followed by the stem (9.04±0.51%), with the least being in the root (6.86 ± 0.67%). The total carbohydrate was highest in the leaf (17.86±0.17%). The highest crude fibre content was observed in the stem (57.99±1.14%) while that of the root (24.47± 0.90%) was the lowest. All these values were significantly different (p<0.05) in the leaf, stem and root. The anti-nutrient composition showed that the leaf had the highest content of tannin (991.36±0.00mg/100g) and oxalate (9.63±0.00mg/100g) while the stem recorded the lowest values in tannin (706.01±0.00mg/100g) and oxalate (5.14±0.00mg/100g). In the vitamin profile, vitamin C was the most abundant, with its content being the highest in the stem (216.61±0.00mg/100g) and lowest in the leaf (204.80 ± 0.00). Vitamin D was the least, with its highest content in the root (6.28 x 10^-6±0.00mg/100g) and lowest in the stem (3.63 x 10⁶±0.00mg/100g). Amongst the essential amino acids, in the amino acid profile, leucine was found to be the highest in the leaf (7.02±0.00mg/100g), stem (8.08±0.00mg/100g) and root (8.69 ± 0.00mg/100g), while methionine was present in relatively lower levels. The non- essential amino acid profile had glutamine as the highest in content in the leaf (15.13±0.00mg/100g), stem (11.95±0.00mg/100g) and root (15.12±0.00mg/100g), while cysteine was the least for all. These results indicate the nutritional potentials of the leaf, stem and root of the Eichhorniacrassipes plant.