Some Heavy Metals, Nutritional Values and Phytochemicals of Water Lily Plant Found in Girei Local Government of Adamawa State, Nigeria

The nutritional composition, phytochemicals and heavy metal contents of Nymphaea lotus in the rhizome, stem leaves and seeds were determined. The powdered plant samples were extracted successively with methanol using Soxhlet apparatus at 55-85 °C for 8-10 hours. Phytochemical Screening was carried out in order to determine the qualitative and quantitative analysis of saponins, tannins, alkaloids and flavonoids. Nutritional composition analysis such as Moisture content, fat composition, ash content, carbohydrate, crude fiber and protein were determined using standard methods whilst, mineral composition was determined using atomic absorption spectrophotometer. The plant parts such as leaf, stem, and rhizome were qualitatively and quantitatively screened for phytochemicals such as tannins, saponins, alkaloids and flavonoids. The leaf sample had the highest amounts of tannins (29.12 mg/g) and saponins (17.26 mg/g), which made the plant good for medicinal purposes. Analysis of elemental components such as Cd, Mn, Pb and Zn were carried out on the plant parts using Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS). Pb was of a higher concentration in all the four parts of the plant than the other elements. The proximate composition in the seed showed crude protein content to have (2.16±0.141 %), crude fat (15.01±0.100 %), crude fiber (11.50±0.100 %), ash content (35.18±0.045 %), moisture (4.76±0.000 %) and carbohydrate (31.40±0.529 %). Oil was extracted from the seed with 6.5 % yield and was quantified for crude protein to have 6.83 %. Anti-nutritional analysis of the seed sample showed tannins to contain (3.210±0.100 mg/100 g), phytate (0.216±0.118 mg/100 g), saponins (0.010±0.00 mg/100 g) as oxalate was not detected. The anti-nutrients were at a permissible limit of WHO/FOA.It was observed that the biochemical composition of Nymphaea lotus seed is beneficial to both humans and animals for proper growth and maintenance while the anti-nutritional contents were reasonably low and may be used in chemical and pharmaceutical industries and the presence of phytochemicals are of great medicinal importance