Nutrient and phytochemical composition of two traditional soups used by malaria patients and post partum mothers in Owo, Ondo State

Background: Indigenous tribes in Nigeria have been using herbal mixture such as soups for therapeutic purpose with limited knowledge on their nutrients and phytochemical components.Objective: The nutrients and phytochemicals composition of two soups consumed by postpartum mothers and malaria patients in Owo were investigated.Methods: Ingredients such as cotton seed, beef, fish, black pepper, calabash nutmeg, turmeric, scent leaf, garlic, palm oil, back of mahogany tree and octomeles sumatrana 'erima' seed were procured, processed and prepared according to local methods into two samples of soups. The ingredients for the cotton seed soup and scent leaf soup samples were similar except for sample cotton seed soup that contain, back of mahogany tree and cotton seeds. One hundred grammes of each soup samples were subjected to proximate, phytochemical and instrumental analyses (AAS for minerals and Vitamins with Gc-HP 6890 powered with HP chemstation Rev. A09.01 (1206) software. Descriptive statistics such as mean and standard deviation were used to analyze data generated and t-test was used in Separation of meansResults: Findings showed that the protein content was significantly (P>0.05) higher in Scent leaf soup (21.85%) than in cotton seed soup (20.63%). No significant difference was observed in the minerals composition of the soups except for iron content of cotton seed soup (23.75mg/100g) that was significantly higher (P>0.05) than that of sent leaf soup (20.85mg/100g). There were significant differences (P>0.05) in the values of vitamin C (14.85 vs 3.04mg/100g), vitamin E (5.72 vs 8.72mg/100g), and vitamin B1 (8.61 vs 9.72mg/100g) of cotton seed and sent leaf soups. Phytate (8.24%) and alkaloid (1.61%) were significantly higher in scent leaf and cotton seed soup respectively.Conclusion: The high nutrients diversity and phytochemicals in the two soups might be responsible for their therapeutic effect on postpartum mothers and malaria treatment.Keywords: Traditional soups, Nutrients Composition, Postpartum, Malari