Comparative Study Of Nutrient Content Of Five Indigenous Fruits

ABSTRACT

According to Livingstone (1987), Nutrients is a substance serving as or providing nourishment. Many people have defined Nutrition in their different ways of understanding. It means a special diet; some people see it as meals for the sick in terms of protein, carbohydrates, fats, minerals and vitamins. Others see it as the process by what food is eaten or selected and become part of the human body. According to Livingstone (1987), Nutrition on its own; is the sum total of the processes by which the living organism receives and utilizes the materials necessary for survival, growth and repair of worn out tissues. One of the best well defined definition is that of Onimaw6' dnd Egbekun (1998), that Nutrition is the study of the food man eats and the use of this food in the body. It interprets the relationship of food to the functioning of the living organisms. Vitamins re organic substances which the body requires in small amount for its metabolism, yet cannot make for itself at least in sufficient quantity. They are not related chemically and differ in their physiological actions (Davidson and Pass more 1986). Vitamin C also known as Ascorbic acid is 1 widely distributed in the tissues of all plants and animals with the notable exception of the dried seeds of cereals and pulses. It is a reducing agent and is necessary to maintain the enzyme prolyihydroxylase in an active form, most likely by keeping its iron atom in a reduced state. The deficiency of vitamin C is the cause of scurvy and this was classified as a disease of sailors, and that of vitamin A causes blindness.