ABSTRACT

 Vegetables are generally succulent parts of plants grown in gardens and consumed as a side dish with starchy staples. This study aims to determine the sensory evaluation ofsoup prepared with ugu and awa (piper methysticum) vegetable and antinutrient composition of an underutilized vegetable (piper methysticum) awa vegetable. The awa (Piper methysticum) leaf used for the cooking of egusi (melon) soup was purchased in Abakpa market, Enugu East Local Government, Enugu State. While the remaining ingredients used for the preparation ofugu (Telifiria Occidentilis) soup were purchased in Orie-uba market in Abia State. Laboratory and other facilities were gotten from Diet Therapy Laboratory, Department ofHuman Nutrition and Dietetics, Michael Okpara University ofAgriculture, Umudike. The vegetables (awa and ugu) were sorted in order to remove unwanted leaves and washed thoroughly with clean water containing table salt to remove dirty and to reduce microbial load. The washed vegetable was sliced into desired size and other ingredients prepared, all prepared ingredients were used to make two different soups with awa vegetable and ugu vegetable respectively and both were subjected to sensory evaluation by a 20 man semi trained panelist on a 9-point Hedonic scale ranging from (1) dislike extremely to (9) like extremely. Determination of antinutrient was done using a standard method. Result obtained was statistically analyzed using IBM Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) version 23.0. Mean and Standard deviation ofthe samples was calculated using T-test where the mean was significantly different at (p<0.05). Results obtained from the study sensory analysis shows that the scores from the sensory attribute of flavor was slightly insignificant for ugu soup over awa soup at (7.70 and 7.71) respectively. Other attributes showed preference score for ugu soup with mean values of(8.85) for appearance, (7.70) for aroma and (8.05) for texture as against (7.10) for appearance, (7.05) for aroma and (7.35) for texture as recorded for awa soup. This shows that 7.95 (88%) mean score was recorded as the general acceptability for ugu soup and 7.30 (81%) for awa soup indicating a higher acceptance for ugu soup over awa soup. Though ugu soup had a higher acceptability statistically (7.95), awa soup was still accepted by the panelist who were not familiar with the soup following the score obtain (7.30). The antinutrient contents of the fresh awa leaf showed Tannin (0.19%), Saponin (0.25%), Haemagglutinin (0.43kg/mg), HCN (7.04kg/mg), Oxalate (0.58%) and Phytate (0.22%). The antinutrient component were found at a concentration that is not above the standard permissible limit for fresh green leafy vegetables which has the following range; Tannin (0.5-2.0%), Saponin (0.5- 1-0%), Haemagglutinin (l-5(HU/100g)), HCN (l-10mg/kg), Oxalate (0.5-1.5%) and Phytate (0.5-1.0%). In conclusion, the results obtained in the sensory and antinutrient showed that awa leaf is consumable and can be used for other food applications. It is recommended that the consumption of awa leaf as a vegetable for cooking soup should be encouraged and the consumption ofraw awa leafshould be done with caution.