Proximate Composition of Five Accessions Of Vernonia amygdalina (Del) in South Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

The proximate analyses of five accessions of bitter leaf collected from five different locations in South Eastern Nigeria, were investigated. Vernonia amygdalina, popularly known as “bitter leaf”, is one natural product in high
demand both as an edible vegetable and a herbal drug, hence, the need for this comparative study to identify the richest accession of the therapeutic herb in the South Eastern region of the country. Standard procedures for
proximate analyses were employed in this study. The proximate content analyzed included ash(A), crude fibre(CF), crude protein(CP), ether extract(EE) and nitrogen free extract ( NFE). The results obtained showed 21.11% CP, 25.61% EE, 16.47% CF, 17.64%A and 21.83% NFE for the CBL accession; 21.11% CP, 25.61% EE, 17.64% CF, 17.64% A and 21.29% NFE for the UBL accession; 25.37%CP, 8.0%EE, 24.0%CF, 12.0%A and 30.63%NFE for Onitsha accession; 26.69%CP, 8.5%EE, 18.50%CF, 11.0%A  and 35.31%NFE for Eket accession; 29.31%CP, 8.5%EE, 13.50%CF, 10.0%A and 38.69% NFE for Ugep accession. These results present the percentage proximate composition of the five accessions of V. amygdalina.