The peels of Eichhornia crassipes were evaluated for its proximate and anti-nutritional composition. The results show that the moisture, ash, crude protein, crude lipid, crude fibre, available carbohydrate and energy value were 89.20 ± 0.23% weight wet, 18.20 ± 0.21 %, 8.2 ± 0.18 %, 2.20 ± 0.03 %, 21.56 ± 0.10 %, 49.98 ± 0.48 % and 252.52 ± 0.50 kcal/100g dry weight respectively. The result of minerals analysis showed that the grass is a good source of both macro and micro elements with calcium as predominant. The result shows that the hydrocyanic acid, nitrate, oxalate and phytate were 0.56 ± 0.01 mg/100gDW, 0.38 ± 0.01 mg/100gDW, 0.33 ± 0.05 mg/100gDW and 4.06 ± 1.69 mg/100gDW. The results indicate that if the grass is properly exploited and processed, they could be a high quality and cheap source of carbohydrates and minerals supplement in the formulation of animal feeds.

The grass Pennisetum pedicellatum is an ornamental-like grass that is widely used in northern Nigeria as a source of animal feed especially by local animal farmers. The objective of this study was to determine the nutritional content of the grass and, hence, quantify their contribution to the animal feed so as to curb the unavailability of animal feed during the dry season. Both macronutrients and micronutrients were determined using flame photometry and atomic absorption spectrometric methods of analysis. The research investigates the mineral and anti-nutrients contents of Pennisetum pedicellatum grass. The anti-nutrients were determined using standard methods of food analyses. The mineral content of the sample showed a composition (mg/100gDW) of 11167 ± 3.82 sodium, 10850 ± 229.13 potassium, 108.3 ± 0.03 calcium, 28.3 ± 0.03 magnesium, 315.7 ± 0.03 phosphorus, 0.58 iron, 5.81 chromium and 4.07 nickel. However, copper, zinc and manganese were not detected in the sample. The anti-nutrient composition (mg/100 g DW) for oxalate, phytate, saponins, cyanide and tannins were 1.00 ± 0.0008, 3474 ± 0.0223, 56.00 ± 0.0035, 11.00 ± 0.0014 and 10.00 ± 0.0025, respectively. The anti-nutritional analysis reveals that the grass contains high amount of phytate and saponins and low oxalate content. The results revealed that the oxalic acid content of the grass is below the critical level while the phytate of the grass is above the critical level.