Modern Scientific Press

ABSTRACT: Vitamin C is an essential water soluble vitamin found mainly in fruits, vegetables and their derivatives. Orange juice is a popular thirst quencher and a convenient way to reach the daily recommended intake of vitamin C. In this study, iodometric titration was used to determine the Vitamin C content in orange fruit juices and also how the vitamin C content in the juice is affected by temperature, storage condition, system type and the addition of acid and base. The orange fruits were purchased randomly from local market in Aliero town, Kebbi State of Nigeria. The juices from the samples were extracted by mechanical pressing of the sliced fruits followed by filtration to remove pulp and vitamin C content in the juices were analysed at 5oC, 27oC, 40oC, and 60oC. Four of the samples were stored for five days where two are open systems while another two are closed systems from which a set of open and closed systems is refrigerated while another set is not refrigerated. The results revealed that high temperature caused an appreciable loss in vitamin C content from 40.4 mg/100mL at 27oC to 34.52 mg/100mL at 40oC and then to 30.92 mg/100mL at 60oC respectively. The refrigerated open and closed systems had the highest vitamin C contents than their non-refrigerated counterparts. The addition of HCl did not significantly cause much change in the Ascorbic acid content of the juice samples. With NaOH, there was no end point which suggests that the base could have neutralized the Ascorbic Acid in the juice samples completely prior to titration analysis. The outcome of this study shows that the stability of vitamin C content in orange juice depends on the type of storage methods employed as seen that the refrigerated systems had the highest value of the Vitamin over the 5-day storage period.

ABSTRACT: The search for more nutrition sources among forest products has called for the analysis of nutritional and anti – nutritional composition of Vitex doniana. Although, Vitex doniana had been known to be very useful among people across tropical Africa and beyond, but there is lack of adequate data on its nutritional composition. The present study designed for determination of proximate, nutritional, and also anti-nutritional analysis of the leaves of Vitex doniana. Proximate compositions revealed that the leaves of Vitex doniana contain moisture content of 4.616±0.005 g, Ash content was 2.027±0.003 g, crude lipids content was3.623±0.168 g, Crude fibre content was 4.991±0.002 g, crude protein 3.423±0.033 g, and carbohydrate content found to be 36.515±0.000g. The anti-nutritional Analysis of Vitex doniana leaves revealed that, the level of the oxalate was 19.200 ± 0.280, Nitrate 287.670±6.489, Tannins 91.100±1.100, Cyanide 228.382±0.130, Phytate 20.420±0.140 respectively. It is concluded that the young leaf is highly rich in nutrients and contains the nutrient levels that fall within other popular edible vegetables. It is therefore recommended for human consumption in every household. It is also suggested that further research should be carried out on its economic status and feasibility of the leaves as feed supplement in animal feed.