Abstract
Cocoyam is a traditional staple root crop in many developing and underdeveloped countries where they are grown primarily for their edible corms, cormels, and leaflets. Cocoyam is vital for addressing food and nutrient security, climate change, environmental sustainability, and poverty reduction because they are essentially produced by small-scale, resource-poor, female farmers with minimal agricultural input. This work evaluated the effects of long-term storage on the food components of three cocoyam species (Colocasia esculenta, Xanthosoma atrovirens and X. sagittifolium). Collected corms and cormels were stored for 201 days at room temperature and then quantitative proximate, mineral, and phytochemical analyses were carried out using a standard laboratory technique. Results suggest that long-term storage may potentially lead to species-specific significant changes in some nutritional contents of cocoyam. Moreover, the analysis of secondary phytochemicals suggests that cyanide, oxalate and saponin contents are negatively affected by long-term storage in C. esculenta and X. sagittifolium. All mineral constituents assessed from the corms of the two Xanthosoma species were significantly reduced. The findings from this study suggest the need for innovative storage methods for cocoyam while contributing to the discourse on cocoyam food properties.
Presenters
Matthew OgwuAssistant Professor, Sustainable Development, Appalachian State University, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
Food storage, Cocoyam, Food and nutrition security, Stem tuber, Corms
