This study was undertaken to determine the proximate composition, vitamins, minerals and the antinutritional factor tannic acid in leaves of six genotypes of mulberry. The results showed that in fresh mulberry leaves the proximate composition values ranged from 71.13 to 76.68% for moisture, from 4.72 to 9.96% for crude protein, from 4.26 to 5.32% for total ash, from 8.15 to 11.32% for Neutral Detergent Fiber (NDF), from 0.64 to 1.51% for crude fat, from 8.01 to 13.42% for carbohydrate and from 69 to 86 kcal/100 g for energy. In dried mulberry leaf powder, moisture ranged from 5.11 to 7.24%, crude protein from 15.31 to 30.91%, total ash from 14.59 to 17.24%, NDF from 27.60 to 36.66%, crude fat from 2.09 to 4.93%, carbohydrate from 9.70 to 29.64% and energy from 113 to 224 kcal/100 g. Among vitamins ascorbic acid and beta-carotene were found to range from 160 to 280 mg/100 g and from 10,000.00 to 14,688.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in fresh mulberry leaves and from 100 to 200 mg/100 g and from 8438.00 to 13,125.00 microg/100 g, respectively, in dried mulberry leaf powder. The minerals iron, zinc and calcium were observed in the ranges of 4.70-10.36 mg/100 g, 0.22-1.12 mg/100 g and 380-786 mg/100 g, respectively, for fresh mulberry leaves, and 19.00-35.72 mg/100 g, 0.72-3.65 mg/100 g and 786.66-2226.66 mg/100 g, respectively, for dried mulberry leaf powder. The tannic acid ranged from 0.04 to 0.08% in fresh leaves and from 0.13 to 0.36% in dried leaf powder.

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Mulberry leaf is commonly used for sericulture in almost every part of the world but its potential to be utilized for human consumption is not well recognized. This paper deals with development of mulberry leaf powder and its use with wheat flour to develop paratha, the most common food item of breakfast and dinner in the Indian diet. The optimum ratio of the mulberry leaf powder and wheat flour (MLP-WF) mix for preparation of paratha on the basis of sensory quality was found to be 1:4. The protein quality of the MLP-WF mix was estimated by measuring the Protein Efficiency Ratio, and was found to be 1.82 against a casein diet for which a value of 2.44 was observed. The in vivo toxic effect of mix was studied and no adverse effect on the growth of internal organs of rats (heart, liver, kidney and testes) was found. The storage stability of the mix was estimated for a period of 2 months in polyethylene bags at room temperature. A non-significant difference was observed between paratha prepared from fresh and stored mix. This indicated that mix can be stored for a period of 2 months at room temperature without loss of quality.

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