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Abstract

The aim of this work was to determine the effect of different botanicals on proximate, minerals and anti-nutrient composition of kola nut in respect to length of storage at 3 weeks after curing. Different classes of weight, 1-10, 11-20 and 21-40g and colours of C. nitida nut were collected from "Ogunmakin market" Ogun state. The nuts in a basket were lined up with different botanicals while justoxin was used as a standard. The nuts of the different sizes and colours were crushed separately into smaller particle sizes using perforated grater for analysis. Nutritive and anti-nutrient evaluation were investigated. Significant difference was obtained for potassium, magnesium and zinc with Potassium having the highest in all the elements analyzed with value 11.69mg/100g dry matter when treated with T. grandis, followed by phosphorus with value 5.57mg/100g dry matter when treated with A. indica and the least was observed for zinc with value 2.50mg/100g dry matter when treated with justoxin respectively. There was significant increase in all the mineral elements analyzed from the lowest nut weight (smallest size) to the highest nut weight (highest size) with the preponderance of potassium (K). Red nut had the highest in all the mineral elements analyzed except for calcium and was highly significant. Oxalate had the highest value ranged between 1.78mg/100g dry matter to 3.09mg/100g dry matter, followed by trypsin inhibitor ranged between 1.33mg/100g dry matter to 2.06mg/100g dry matter and phytate the least ranged between 1.30mg/100g dry matter to 2.03mg/100g dry matter respectively. All the anti-nutrient analyzed was significantly different from each other at 5% level of probability. Significant difference were obtained for % crude protein, moisture content, organic carbon and organic matter ranged between 3.34 to 3.49 for crude protein, 88.17 to 88.79 for % moisture content, 5.52 to 5.70 for % organic carbon and 9.46 to 9.80 for % organic matter respectively. Result obtained for proximate of different weight showed increased values from the lowest nut weight to highest nut weight. These results reveal that these seeds/nuts contain appreciable amounts of nutrients especially carbohydrates and proteins with good caloric value and low levels of toxicants and should be included in human diets to supplement our daily allowance needed by the body.