Composition and nutritive value of cormels of Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott

Abstract

The nutritional quality of the cormels of Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott cultivar 'Guavir' was determined chemically and biologically in feeding experiments with weanling rats. The contents of starch and unavailable carbohydrates (cellulose, hemicellulose and pectin) were 54 and 15% of the dry matter respectively. Lipid accounted for less than 1% of the dry matter. Palmitic, oleic and linoleic acids were the main fatty acids in the lipids, with linoleic acid predominating. The content and fatty acid composition of the individual lipids was examined. Crude protein amounted to 10.4% of the dry matter. This protein was low in the sulphurcontaining amino acids and tryptophan, but contained adequate levels of the other essential amino acids. Diets containing raw cormel meal gave severely depressed net protein utilisation (NPU) and total nitrogen and carbohydrate digestibility when fed ad libitum to weanling rats. Both NPU and nitrogen and carbohydrate digestibility improved when the cormel meal was cooked prior to inclusion in the diets but wch diets still did not support growth in weanling rats.

Allocative efficiency of small-holder cocoyam farmers in Anambra State, Nigeria

“…The coefficient for age was negatively signed and significant at 5% probability level, this implies that increase in age will result in allocative inefficiency because most of the respondents were the aged and would tend to misallocate their resources. This was also reported by Idiong (2005) and Hussain et al (1984).…”

Studies on the Flowers and Stems of Two Cocoyam Varieties: Xanthosoma sagittifolium and Colocasia esculenta

“…The two values show that the flowers of the two cocoyam are protein rich. These results are in agreement with the report of Hussam et al [13] which reveals that the protein content of the corm of Xanthosoma sagittifolium (tannia) is significantly higher that the value of other tuber crops. Standal [14] also reported that Xanthosoma sagittifolium contains more amino acids than cassava, yam and sweet potatoes.…”

Cell wall compositions of raw and cooked corms of taro (Colocasia esculenta)

“…Fractionation of the cell walls con®rmed this composition. In contrast, Hussain et al, 12 using dissimilar isolation and fractionation methods, obtained quite different results for the cell walls of taro cv Guavir grown in Bangladesh. They found that the walls contained 70% hemicellulose, 17% pectin and 13% cellulose by weight.…”

“…11 However, another study, using selective extraction of polysaccharides, indicated that they contained 70% (w/w) hemicellulose polysaccharides. 12 The aims of the present study were to examine the cell wall composition of the raw corms of the taro cultivar Tausala Pink and to determine the effect of cooking on the composition.…”