Fatty acid, amino acid and trace mineral composition of Eleusine coracana (Pwana) seeds from northern Nigeria

In northern Nigeria the seeds of the cereal Eleusine coracana (finger millet), called 'pwana' by the Birom and 'tamba' by the Hausa, are used as a supplemental food taken in the form of tea or a porridge-like meal. Seeds were analyzed for fatty acid, amino acid and mineral contents. They contained 12 mg/g total fatty acid, 42% of which was oleic acid (C18:1n-9), 21% palmitic acid (C16:0), 25% linoleic acid (C18:2n-6) and 4% α-linolenic acid (C18:3n-3). The linoleic acid/α-linolenic acid ratio (6.5:1) was within the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation (5:1 to 10:1). Although the total protein content of E. coracana was relatively low (6.9% dry weight), its protein composition compared favorably to that of the WHO standard for all of the essential amino acids except lysine. E. coracana seeds contained only 49% of the WHO ideal for lysine, but 436% of the WHO 'ideal' for tryptophan. In terms of mineral content, E. coracana is a useful source of calcium, phosphorous, and copper, and an excellent source of chromium, iron, magnesium, manganese, molybedenum and selenium. These data indicate that while E. coracana does not provide a complete food source in terms of its qualitative and quantitative fat, protein or mineral contents, it does contain appreciable quantities of a number of essential nutrients that make it a useful food supplement for the people of northern Nigeria. © 2004 Kluwer Academic Publishers.