PROJECT PROPOSAL PRESENTATION

NAME: GLADYS MAKAA SAMMY

REG NO: A22/4085/2009

TITLE:

EFFECT OF DIFFERENT PRESERVATION

METHODS ON THE NUTRITIVE VALUE OF

COWPEA ( Vigna unguiculata) LEAVES

SUPERVISOR: DR. M. J. HUTCHINSON

BACKGROUND INFORMATION • Originated in Africa and widely grown in Africa, South

East Asia, Latin America and Southern United States

• Available mainly during the rainy season especially in the dry areas

• Drought tolerant varieties available for the dry areas.

• Used as a vegetable and proven to be a good source of vitamins and minerals e.g vitamins A and C, Ca, K and Fe (Imungi,1983)

• Little done on the crop-research on nutritive value of the leaves not given lots of emphasis compared to the seeds

PROBLEM STATEMENT AND JUSTIFICATION

• Little research on value addition of this leafy vegetable

to provide food during the dry season of scarcity.

• Emphasis only given to cowpea seeds yet demand for

leaves is still on the rise –in both urban and rural areas

• Little information on the impact of different value

addition options on vitamins and micronutrients

content.

• Leaves highly nutritious and can be preserved using

locally available methods-cheap and easy to practice

(sun-drying, blanching and freezing etcetera) (Evelyn,

2006)

Overall objective

To determine the effect of different preservation methods on

the amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and

iron.

Specific objectives

1. To determine the effect of sun drying on the amounts of

Vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and iron.

2. To determine the effect of blanching and freezing on the

amounts of vitamin A, vitamin B, potassium, calcium and

iron.

3. To determine the effect of blanching and sun drying on the

amounts of vitamin A, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and

iron.

METHODS AND MATERIALS Experimental site: Will be carried out in a farmer’s field

Ndumbuini- Kabete between February and April 2013.

Planting material: California Black-eyed pea

Experimental design: Completely Randomized Design (CRD) on ground with no replications and 3 replications for each of the four treatments in the laboratories.

Data collection technique: Primary- collection of cowpea leaves from the field for analysis in the Food Science and Soil Chemistry laboratories

CONT’D Treatments: Fresh leaves(control)

Blanching and sun drying

Blanching and freezing

Sun drying (fresh leaves)

Total treatments: 60 (12 for each treatment)

Determination of the various components

• Vitamin A- Spectrophotmetrically as β-carotene according to AOAC (1984)

• Vitamin C- visual titration using 2, 6-dichlorophelindophenol dye according to AOAC (1984)

• Calcium and Iron- FLAME AAS

• Potassium-FLAMEPHOTOMETRE

Data analysis:

Data obtained will be subjected to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) using GENSTAT statistical package and the means will be compared and tested at 5% level of significance.

REFERENCES

1. Imungi, J.K and N.N. Potter, 1983. Nutrition content of

raw and cooked cowpea leaves. Journal of food science

48(4):1254-1254

2. Evelyn, C. 2006. Blanching is a must when freezing

vegetables. Journal on Extension Foods and Nutrition

(344):844-2224

WORKPLAN

TIME

ACTIVITY JAN

2013

FEB

2013

MARCH

2013

APRIL

2013

MAY

2013

Proposal

writing

Land

preparation

Planting

Proposal

presentation

Data analysis

Report

presentation

THE END – THANK YOU