2005, Volume 11 No. 1

ARTICLE 3

Dietary Fibre and Mineral Availability in Some Nigerian Fruit-Vegetable and Fruit-Legume Composite Diets

Olumuyiwa Sunday Falade¹, Oladipo Ayo Olatunbosun¹, Abiodun Adewale Oladipo², Ayo Tubosun² & Steve Adeniyi Adewusi^1
1Department of Chemistry, and ²Centre for Energy Research and Development, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria

ABSTRACT
Soluble Dietary Fibre (SDF), Insoluble Dietary Fibre (IDF) and Total Dietary Fibre (TDF) were determined by the gravimetric method in some fruits (Banana, Grapefruit, Orange and Pineapple), amaranthus vegetable and a legume (Vigna unguiculata). The availability of some minerals (Fe, Zn, Mg and Cu) in the whole fruits was investigated using ICP – OES after enzymatic digestion as well as their possible effect in composite amaranthus-fruit and legume-fruit meals. The different types of fibres were low in all the fruit samples but relatively high in amaranthus and cowpea. Banana and orange enhanced Fe availability from amaranthus but grapefruit and pineapple impaired Fe availability. All the fruits impaired Fe availability from cowpea. There was a strong correlation between DF and Iron Availability. All the fruits enhanced Zn availability from amaranthus but only grapefruit and orange enhanced it from cowpea. There was no correlation between Mg and DF. All the fruits impaired Cu availability with the exception of orange with 100 % enhancement from amaranthus and pineapple with 25 % enhancement from cowpea.

Full Article >>