The nutritive value of water hyacinth wichhornia crassipes) and its utilisation

Analyses of five different parts of water hyacinth, viz.: leaves, petioles, roots, whole plant without roots and whole plant were carried out at NIFFR Central Laboratory. This is to evaluate their potentials in animal feed composition. The proximate analysis shows that the moisture content ranged from 92.13 % in the roots to 85.15 % in the leaves with a mean of 90.39%. The ash content ranged from 39.80 % in the roots to 16.79 % in the leaves. For the crude lipids, the least value of I.2 % came from the roots while the petioles had the highest value of 2.10%. The percentage crude fibre ranged from 12.15 in the roots to 21.97 % in the whole plant without the roots with a mean value of 14.41%. The percentage crude protein ranged from 7.11 in the petioles through 7.67 in the whole plant to 15.27 % in the leaves. The leaves therefore had almost twice the values obtained for the other parts of the plant. Using water hyacinth leaves to ferinulate feed might increase the crude protein level of the feed and might aid in the digestibility of the feed. Its crude protein level compares favourably with the crude protein content of cassava leaves, potato leaves and pawpaw leaves and could be used to replace those leaves in fish diet. The mineral composition showed that the whole plant without the roots had more potassium (K) closely followed by the petioles. Sodium (Nat) was however highest in the petioles