Proximate and phytochemical screening of some selected herbs and spices commonly used in Nigeria

Background and Objective: Many common herbs and spices contain powerful phytochemical substances that can improve the quality of our health. This study provided comparative baseline data on the proximate and phytochemical components of Allium sativum, Garcinia kola, Curcuma longa and Zingiber officinale. Materials and Methods: Proximate composition and phytochemical analyses were carried out on the selected spices powder using standard methods. Results: The five samples showed varying percentages of moisture, crude protein, fibre, fat and ash. Meanwhile, the percentages for the moisture content, crude protein, crude fibre, crude fat and ash for the mixture were 7.65%, 16.99%, 8.60, 2.30% and 9.05% respectively. The phytochemicals detected in the samples were flavonoids, alkaloids, cardiac glycoside, tannins, saponin and steroid while anthoquinones were absent. The FTIR spectrum showed that the extract of the combined mixture has bands and wave numbers of between 3291 cm-1 to 2922 cm-1 as the prominent peaks. Conclusion: The findings indicate that the herbs and the spices are potential source of highly nutritious feed stuff and phytochemicals. The combinatorial usage of these spices and herbs will be of nutritional, clinical and veterinary relevance considering the diverse presence of different phytochemical functional groups as demonstrated by the FTIR analysis of the mixture