Studies on nutritive characteristics of some accessions of Dacryodes eduli from selected states of Southeastern Nigeria

Abstract

This study was conducted to evaluate the nutrient content among some accessions of Dacryodes edulis. Six accessions of Dacryodes edulis seeds were collected from two States in Nigeria and analyzed for proximate, mineral, vitamin and phytochemical compositions. Ten fruits were collected from each accession to evaluate the variation in their fruit length, width, weight pulp and seed weight of D.edulis. The result showed that all the proximate, mineral, vitamin and phytochemical compositions of the seeds were highly significant (P<0.001). The result further showed that there is significantly (P<0.001) difference between the length, width, weight pulp and seed weight. This study established that greater variability in fruit characteristics of D.edulis are significantly affected by fruit size.

Key words: Nutrient content, Phytochemical compositions , Fruit characteristics and variations