Effect of Processing on Nutritional and Anti-Nutritional Composition of Urena Lobata Leaves

The proximate, phytochemical, mineral and vitamin composition of the processed urena lobata leaves were analyzed using Association of Official Analytical Chemist (AOAC) method, Arisa, Onwuka, Pearson, Harboure ,and Atomic Absorption spectrophotometry, Okwu and Josiah procedures respectively. This study is aimed at investigating the nutrition and anti -nutrition content of the leaves .The proximate analysis of the raw were 49.55% for moisture, 17.25% for crude protein, 7.44% for crude fibre, 7.95% for ether extract, 9.09% for Ash and 8.73% for carbohydrates. For oxalate, tannins, saponnins, alkaloids and flavonoids were 4.62mg/100g, 2.5mg/100g, 3.01mg/100g, 6.92mg/100g and 3.33mg/100g for respectively. While 48.13mg/100g for calcium, 34.77mg/100g for magnesium, 29.85mg/100g for sodium, 40.97mg/100g for zinc and 21.21mg/100g. And 1.95mg/100g for vitamin B1,1.06mg/100g for vitamin B2, 3.79mg/100g for vitamin B3 and 19.29mg/100g for vitamin C for raw respectively. The presence of some phytochemicals such as tannins, saponnins, alkaloids and flavonoids and some essential minerals proves that this leaves is a source for medicine.