Adequacy of mineral contents of raw and plain sticky sauce of common and bush okra

Abstract

In Nigeria, common okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) and bush okra (Corchorus olitorius L.) are popular mucilage vegetables used as sticky sauce for easy consumption of starchy staples.Both raw vegetables and sticky sauce of common as well as bush okra were estimated for their potential in the provision of daily dietary allowance of important minerals. Modified methods of the Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) were used to estimate the assessed minerals.The results showed that the raw and sticky sauce of assessed common and bush okra contained appreciable levels and essential minerals, but are not adequate to meet recommended dietary allowance, except for Fe and Cu. Comparatively, the two species of okra varied significantly in their mineral content of the raw and plain sauce. There was also a negative effect of cooking on the mineral contents, which reduced significantly to an average of 30% on a dry weight basis.Therefore, the two vegetables, either as a fresh or sticky sauce, require additional sources of P, K, Na, Mg, Ca, Mn, and Zn to meet recommended dietary allowance. Furthermore, dried mucilagesauce, though, could be an appreciable post harvest management and storage but not without a loss of about one-third mineral content in the process. However, the sauce of common okra andbush okra are good sources for any of the assessed mineral restricted diets