MINERAL COMPOSITION ,AFRICAN NUTMEG

Monodora myristica is a perennial, edible plant used in West Africa and other parts of the world for its medicinal and culinary value. There is paucity of data on the nutritional contents of M. myristica seeds in the four regions of Nigeria where the seeds are easily available. This study was undertaken to determine the mineral contents of M. myristica (African nutmeg) seeds from Abuja, Awka, Benin City and Ondo Towns. Seeds of M. myristica used were deshelled, oven-dried and ground into fine powder. The powdered sample was subjected to mineral analysis using atomic absorption spectrometry. The mineral analysis showed that there were highly significant differences in the
mineral contents of African nutmeg samples sourced from the various locations in calcium, chromium, potassium and zinc. But the iron, magnesium, manganese, and sodium contents were not significantly different from one location to the other. The results showed that the Monodora myristica seeds are rich in minerals and that the content levels vary in some minerals as a result of the location. This may be as a result of the different soil types and the nutritive state of the soil where the plants were grown. It should also be noted that no particular location exhibited better mineral element composition across all the minerals studied. More mineral elements both beneficial and harmful should be studied in African nutmeg from more locations.