Nutritive values, dietary antioxidant and seed protein profile of some underutilized seeds and nuts from ethnic sources
Abstract
Study with seven unrelated and diverse type of non-conventional seeds and nuts, viz. Trapa natans, Nymphaea nouchali, Euryle ferox, Castanopsis argentea, Artocarpus heterophyllus, Nelumbo nucifera and Gnetum gnemon revealed that they are rich in nutritive values and high in calorific values. Crude protein content varied from 4.40–32.08%; carbohydrate content varied from 38.66–77.50%. With calorific values in the range of 317.78 Kcal/100g to 376.62 Kcal/100g, these are high calorie food with low lipid in the range of 0.93%to 6.74%. They are also rich in dietary antioxidant phenolics which varied widely from 1.0–17.6 mg/g. The free amino acid content varied from 4.0–10.66 mg/g. Present study show that that nonconventional seeds and nuts are very rich in nutrient content
Keywords
Nutritive value, seeds and nuts, phenolics, non-conventional food plants
