Nutritional evaluation of five selected tubers of Kanyakumari District, India

  F. Vargila,  Dr. C. Josephine Priyatharshini

Eating balanced diet is essential for good health and wellfare. Tubers provide the chief nutrients like carbohydrate, protein and fat for the proper function of our body. In this study, biochemical and nutritive value of five commonly available tubers of Kanyakumari district such as Solanum tuberosum, Ipomoea batatas, Colocasia esculenta, Plectranthus rotundifolius and Borassus flabellifer were analysed. The results revealed that, the tubers contain rich amount of carbohydrate, protein and lipid. Among all, the amount of protein is high in C. esculenta, carbohydrate in S. tuberosum and lipid in B. flabellifer. Also the tubers have good amount of minerals like nitrogen, phosphorous and potash. The analysis showed that, the amount of nitrogen is high in P. rotundifolius, phosphorous and potash in Ipomoea batatas. pH of the tubers are seems to be slightly alkaline ranging from 7.6 to 7.7. Thus it can be concluded that tubers are staple food and have immense potential as functional foods.

Keywords- Borassus flabellifer, Colocasia esculenta, Ipomoea batatas, Solanum tuberosum and Plectranthus rotundifolius.

Unique Identification Number - IJEDR1803004
Page Number(s) - 17-20
Pubished in - Volume 6 | Issue 3 | July 2018
DOI (Digital Object Identifier) -   
Publisher - IJEDR (ISSN - 2321-9939)

  F. Vargila,  Dr. C. Josephine Priyatharshini,   "Nutritional evaluation of five selected tubers of Kanyakumari District, India", International Journal of Engineering Development and Research (IJEDR), ISSN:2321-9939, Volume.6, Issue 3, pp.17-20, July 2018, Available at :http://www.ijedr.org/papers/IJEDR1803004.pdf