Nutritional analysis of Panicum Sarmentosum

Panicum sarmentosum is a medicinal plant that grows in various areas of Kelantan and is consumed without knowing its nutritional value. This study deals withthe nutritional analysis of P. sarmentosum. Nutritional value was analysed by measuring moisture, ash, fat, protein, carbohydrate, food energy and minerals content (Ca, Mg, K, Na, Zn, Cd, Pb, Ni, Cu) by oven drying, muffle fumace, soxhlet, Kjedahl method, standard formula and Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer (AAS), respectively. The results revealed that P. sarmentosum shows 9.50% of moisture, 10.00% of ash, 3.11% offat, 20.16% ofprotein, 57.23% of carbohydrate, 337.5 kcal/g of food energy and mineral content (40.62ppm of Ca, 7.8()ppm of Mg, 75.08ppm of K, 450.93ppm of Na, 0.2lppm of Zn, 0.1 lppm of Cd, 0.53ppm of Pb, 0.00ppm ofNi and 0.05lppm of Cu). The presence of high nutritional value of P. sarmentosum suggested this plant can be exploited as a good source of supplements.