Physicochemical Analysis of Taro (Colocasia esculenta (L.) Schott) Accessions

Taro is an important staple meal for rural people in resource-poor nations in sub-Saharan Africa countries. This study looked at the proximate, mineral, and anti-nutrient content of whole taro corm. Understanding the extent and distribution of genetic diversity in taro is critical for creating conservation and enhancement initiatives. The aim of the study was to assess nutritional diversity and construct a taro pre-breeding population for high dry matter and low oxalate levels. One hundred and eighty eight taro accessions were procured and planted in alpha lattice design in 2019 at Ebonyi State University's teaching and experimental fields. The corms were picked from each accession, washed, and shipped to Nigeria's National Root Crop Research Institute Biochemistry Laboratory. The corms were freeze-dried, crushed, and analyzed for physiochemical parameters using the standard techniques of analysis provided by the Association of standard Analytical Chemists. Significant differences were observed among the taro populations in dry matter content at 22.53 %, ash at 2.46 %, crude lipid at 0.60 %, fibre at 1.74 %, crude protein at 7.79 %, carbohydrates at 9.97 %, and energy at 76.48 Kcal. Potassium content was at 638.91 mg/100 g, sodium at 28.39 mg/100g, calcium at 35.18 mg/100g, phosphorus at 117.61 mg/100g, iron at 7.78 mg/100g, zinc at 2.84 mg/100g, and manganese at 2.03 mg/100g. The soluble, insoluble, and total oxalate concentration was at 74.18 mg/100g, 218.76 mg/100 g, and 291.63 mg/100 g, respectively. A hierarchical cluster analysis of taro accessions revealed three distinct groupings, with cluster three distinguished by high dry matter content and an intermediate oxalate level. The findings revealed the existence of a considerable differential in nutritional content among the taro populations analyzed. Taro is divers in its dry matter and anti-nutrient content. Clustering the accessions according to their merit would aid breeders in sorting genotypes for eating quality metrics like high dry matter and low oxalate levels. These results, needs further work for reliability.