Author(s)

Durand Dah-Nouvlessounon¹, Adolphe Adjanohoun², Haziz Sina¹, Pacôme A. Noumavo¹, Nafan Diarrasouba³, Charles Parkouda⁴, Yann E. Madodé⁵, Mamoudou H. Dicko⁶, Lamine Baba-Moussa^1*

¹Laboratoire de Biologie et de Typage Moléculaire en Microbiologie, FAST, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Bénin.
²Centre de Recherches Agricoles Sud, Institut National des Recherches Agricoles du Bénin, Attogon, Bénin.
³UFR des Sciences Biologiques, Université Péléforo Gon Coulibaly, Korhogo, C?te d’Ivoire.
⁴Département de Technologie Alimentaire, IRSAT/CNRST, DTA, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.
⁵Département de Nutrition et Sciences Alimentaires, FSA, Université d’Abomey-Calavi, Cotonou, Bénin.
⁶Laboratoire de Biochimie Alimentaire, Enzymologie, Biotechnologie Industrielle et Bioinformatique, Université de Ouagadougou, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso.

Kola nuts were regularly chewed by West Africans and Beninese in particularly. The aim of this study was to investigate nutritional and anti-nutrient content of three Benin’s kola nuts (Cola nitida, Cola acuminata and Garcinia kola). Proximate composition of the three species of kola nuts was assessed using standard analytical AOAC methods. Phenolics and flavonoids contents were determined by Folin-Ciocalteu and aluminum trichloride methods, respectively. Mineral composition was determined by Atomic Absorption Spectrometry method. Free and total amino acids were separated and quantified by HPLC. Protein content of the three kola nuts ranges from 4.95% (G. kola) to 10.64% (C. acuminata) whereas fat content ranges from 0.2 ± 0.00 (C. nitida) to 2.5 ± 0.42 (G. kola). Total phenolics abounded (2444.96 ± 81.56 μg Eq AG/100g) in C. acuminata, while flavonoids predominated (561.69 ± 22.10 μgEqQ/100g) in G. kola. The three species are a good source of magnesium and a copper provider was lowest in C. nitida (0.59 ± 0.08 mg/g) and in C. acuminata (0.65 ± 0.02 mg/g). The dominant total essential amino acids were threonine (C. acuminata) and methionine (C. acuminata and G. kola), while the predominant non-essential total amino acids according to species were arginine (C. nitida and G. kola), proline (C. acuminata) and cysteine (G. kola). For the anti-nutrients factors, saponins were in great proportion (8.33% ± 0.25%), while the oxalates were in small proportion (0.44% ± 0.04%). The three species have an interesting nutritional composition, but these seeds have the relatively lowest amino acids content.

Kola Nuts, Polyphenolic Compound, Micronutrient, Benin

Dah-Nouvlessounon, D. , Adjanohoun, A. , Sina, H. , Noumavo, P. , Diarrasouba, N. , Parkouda, C. , Madodé, Y. , Dicko, M. and Baba-Moussa, L. (2015) Nutritional and Anti-Nutrient Composition of Three Kola Nuts ( Cola nitida, Cola acuminata and Garcinia kola ) Produced in Benin. Food and Nutrition Sciences, 6, 1395-1407. doi: 10.4236/fns.2015.615145.