Introduction

The population of the developing countries relies to about 80% on traditional medicines for their primary health needs and 85% of these traditional medicines involve use of plant extracts. This means that about four billion people depend on natural products as the primary source of medicine ¹. Chhattisgarh is one of the largest tribal states of India situated between 17⁰ – 23⁰ 7’ North latitude and 80⁰ 40’ – 83⁰ 38’ East longitude. It receives annual average rainfall of 60’’. The Chhattisgarh was declared a herbal state as 44% of the total geographical area of the state is covered by forest ². These forests contain an incredible number of plant species and these plants find applications in the treatment of many ailments and nutrition. In this communication we are reporting the results of proximate compositional analyses and micro-nutrient analyses of seeds of five plant species of leguminoseae family growing in Chhattisgarh state.

Experimental

The seeds of plants were collected, cleaned and dried in shade. The cleaned seeds were then crushed mechanically. Proximate analyses of the seeds were determined using ^{3 – 4}. Moisture ⁵, Ash ⁵, Total Organic Matter ¹ were calculated with methods reported in literature. Fat contents of the seeds were estimated by refluxing the crushed seeds with petroleum ether (60⁰-80⁰) in a soxhlet extractor for 8 -10 hours. Crude fibre was determined by method mentioned in literature ⁶. Nitrogen was estimated in the samples using Kjeltech system 1002 making use of instructions in the manual.

Calorific value of the original and defatted seeds was determined using Julius – Peter Bomb Calorimeter. Micronutrients in the seeds were determined by preparing acid extracts of seed samples by the method of Jackson  and read on Perkin – Elmer atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer model 3110. The calculations were made as per dilution ⁷.

Result and Discussion 

The results of the analyses of seeds for Moisture, Ash, Total Organic Matter, Proteins, Fats, Crude Fibre and Carohydrates are recorded in table – 1.

Table 1: Proximate Analyses of Seeds.

Percentage of nitrogen  and calorific value determined in the original seeds and defatted seeds are recorded in table – 2 below.

Table 2: Calorific value and Nitrogen % in the Seeds.

Table – 3 gives the results of micro nutrient compositional analyses of the seed ash.

Table 3: Micro Nutrient Composition of the Seeds  (ppm)

A perusal of table – 1 reveals that  all the seeds have moisture contents ≈5 percent, which is much below 15 percent level, hence all these five seeds are capable for storage for long durations ⁸. Ash, which is a measure of total mineral matter. Was maximum  in the seeds of  A. Auriculiformis  (10.69%). In all other four seeds it was around or below 5%, which indicate that all the seeds except  A. Auriculiformis  have very little mineral matter in them. Total Organic Matter in all the seeds were above 95% in all the seeds leaving alone  A. Auriculiformis which has 89.31% total organic matter  , thus all the five seeds may be considered to be highly nutritious ⁸. Proteins were found to be in fairly large amounts in all the five seeds (≻ 15%), hence, these seeds can be good source of proteins and in turn of essential amino acids.

Seeds of  A. Auriculiformis and P.juliflora were found to be having fairly large amount of Fe⁺⁺⁺. Iron is a trace element for haemoglobin formation, normal functioning of central nervous system and oxidation of carbohydrates, proteins and fats in the metabolic process ⁹.

References 

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2. Chandrakar, P.L. and Tripathi, K.   Chhattisgarh Atlas, Sharda Publications, Bilaspur,2003, p 45.
3. O.A.C.   Official Methods of Analysis, 13^th Edition, 1980,Associan of Official Analytical Chemists, Washington D.C.
4. Wilton, A.L. And Wilton K.B. Analysis of Food, Chapman and Hall Ltd., London, 1968,p 143.
5. Allen, E.S.; Grimshaw, H.M   and Chemical Analysis of Ecological Material, Blackwell Parkinson, J.A. Scientific Publications, Oxford, pp 80 – 81
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