Chemical profiles of the leaves of Sansevieria senegambica Baker

The proximate, amino acid, mineral and vitamin composition of Sansevieria senegambica was investigated. The proximate analysis revealed that S. senegambica is rich in moisture (68%), protein (26.25% wet weight and 82.29% dry weight) and ash (2.30% wet weight and 7.21% dry weight). Its protein is rich in the essential amino acids (about 59.64%), with 3.55% of it being the sulphur-containing amino acids and 7.38% of aromatic amino acids. This study also revealed high content of sodium (4739.4mg/kg wet weight and 14857.0mg/kg dry weight), calcium (1088.2mg/kg wet weight and 3411.4mg/kg dry weight), iron (10.9mg/kg wet weight and 34.1mg/kg dry weight), magnesium (222.0mg/kg wet weight and 696.0mg/kg dry weight) and manganese (0.9mg/kg wet weight and 2.9mg/kg dry weight); as well as the vitamins, vitamin C (403.8mg/kg wet weight and 1265.8mg/kg dry weight), biotin (0.1mg/kg wet weight and 0.4mg/kg dry weight), vitamin K (0.1mg/kg wet weight and 0.4mg/kg dry weight), folic acid (0.1mg/kg wet weight and 1.2mg/kg dry weight) and riboflavin (1.1mg/kg wet weight and 3.3mg/kg dry weight). The present result indicates that S. senegambica is a rich source of protein, minerals and vitamins, and so can serve as a potentially good source of these nutrients, especially in the production of food supplements or nutrient concentrates.