Nutrient composition and protein quality of wild gathered foods from Mali

Abstract

For developing countries only limited information is available on nutritive composition of foods in general and of gathered foods in particular. This paper presents the nutritive composition and nutritional quality of wild gathered foods from Malian Gourma. Important wild staples used by nomads were collected in the dry season. The samples included grains of Cenchrus biflorus and Panicum laetum, green leaves of the Maerua crassifolia and roots of Nymphaea lotus. C. biflorus had the highest concentrations of protein (22.1%), fat (7.3%) and gross energy (1880 kJ/100 g). Among the fractions of P. laetum the dehusked grains were richest in protein (12.4%), total carbohydrates (82.1%) and gross energy (1630 kJ/100 g). The first limiting amino acid, irrespective of the fraction of the grains, was lysine. The biological studies of the protein quality confirmed the findings in chemical analysis and calculations of chemical scores. Both methods, the calculations of chemical scores and of biological values, gave results showing that the grains of C. biflorus and P. laetum had low protein quality. The net effect of boiling the wild grains did not improve protein quality. As a source of available high quality protein boiled leaves of M. crassifolia had higher quality than wild gathered grains, and C. biflorus had higher quality than the fractions of P. laetum. Roots of water lilies, the N. lotus, were found to have a balanced amino acid composition. In order to improve the protein quality the wild gathered grains need to be supplemented or combined with other foods rich in lysine. Milk, an important food in the area, is a good source of lysine. Prepared green leaves of M. crassifolia and roots of N. lotus seem to be of high nutritional quality and may also be recommended to improve the nutritional quality of diets dependent on gathered and cultivated grains.