Vol. 3, Issue 2, Part A (2021)

Nuts are outstanding source of nutrients and bio active compounds. They are consumed by greater part of the populations of the world in some form or other depending on the accessibility in the geographical area. The study was aimed at investigating and comparing the proximate composition and antioxidant related minerals in four selected local nuts of tiger nut, walnut, cashew nuts and groundnuts commonly consumed in the south east, Nigeria. The proximate composition and minerals such as cupper, manganese, zinc, iron and selenium were assayed following standard method. The result of the proximate analysis indicated that cashew nut had more of the moisture content (10.00 %) while walnut had more of the ash content (6.14 %) compared to other nuts assayed. Crude fibre and fat were seen to be high in walnut and groundnut (6.04 and 51.67 %) respectively, while crude protein and carbohydrate was high in walnut (35.98 and 14.56 %) respectively, compared to other nuts. The energy value was higher in groundnut. The result also showed that, walnut had the highest content of the minerals, Cu (0.84 mg/kg), Mn (1.54 mg/kg), Zn (2.76 mg/kg), Fe (18.16 mg/kg) and Se (3.77 mg/kg) compared to other selected nuts. This study showed that the nuts have appreciable and varying amount of proximate and mineral compositions with walnut having more of the minerals compared to other nuts. The high quantity of these proximate and mineral compositions shows the importance of nuts and should be incorporated into diets for health benefits.