Nutritive Potentials of Kanya (Diospyros mespiliformis) Fruit: A Review
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.33003/Keywords:
Antioxidant, minerals, lycophene, tomatoesAbstract
Diospyros mespiliformis has long been utilized for its functional and medicinal properties; the fruit of the plant is used as a staple, and its leaves are used as animal feed. However, the purpose of this study was to examine pertinent scientific literature. The review's findings confirmed the bioactive makeup of the plants' leaves, body bark, and roots, as well as the outstanding nutritional potential of the fruit pulp and seed. This indicates that the fruit has an excellent approximate vitamin C content (>34 mg/100g), along with good moisture content (13.11–65.2%), ash content (0.68–2.02%), crude fat content (1.41–19.08%), crude fibre content (0.29–3.37%), crude protein content (1.50–6.01%), and carbohydrate content (31.72-56.55%). It is also rich in minerals including Calcium 40.31- 69.44 mg/100g, Iron 9.88 - 24.29 mg/100g, Zinc 0.805 – 2.40 mg/100g, Magnesium 9.24 – 31.07 mg/100g. The fruit seed is also rich in mineral and nutritive values. While it has been used locally in the treatment of main ailments including cholera, diarrhea, and ulcers, the roots, bark, and leaves were also reviewed to be rich in phytonutrients.