Nutritional Value and Anti-nutritional Factor's Analyses of Five Indigenous Spices used by the Karbi Group of Assam, India

Uses of indigenous herbs and spices have become ubiquitous on modern culinary systems. But to date literatures on nutritional aspects of these group of plants are limited. Therefore the present study was done to evaluate the nutritional and anti-nutritional compositions of five indigenous spices commonly used in Karbi cuisines. The present study will help identify long forgotten multifunctional food resources which was previously neglected due to its low quantity in use.

The nutritional compositions were determined according to procedures established by Association of official Analytical chemists 1990 and the anti-nutritive factors of the samples were determined according to the procedure described in the reported scientific publications.

The results showed appreciable amount of nutrients in Citrus macroptera Montrouz., Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers., Ocimum citriodorum Vis., Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton. and Zanthoxylum armatum DC. The energy value of these five spices showed remarkable values, with the highest value observed in Ocimum citriodorum Vis. (354.08 Kcal) and lowest in Litsea cubeba (Lour.) Pers. (108.67 Kcal). The moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fats, total carbohydrate and crude fibre content of the studied spices vary from 0.857.45%, 3.30–14.25%, 1.85–25.30%, 1.80–43.09%, 7.03–32.32% and 1.39–72.55% in range respectively. The vitamin C content was estimated highest in Perilla frutescens (L.) Britton. (34 mg/100 g) and lowest in Citrus macroptera Montrouz. (22 mg/100 g). The phytate (17.22–18.85 mg/100 g), oxalate (10.15–12.42 mg/100 g), tannin (9.45–11.61 mg/100 g) and saponin (8.82–10.55 mg/100 g) contents were very low and hence these spices are less toxic for human consumptions.