Extractability and nutritional value of leaf protein from tropical aquatic plants.

In a study conducted on the extraction of protein from the leaves of 30 freshwater aquatic plants, the highest standing crop fresh yield was found in Typha latifolia (2650 g/m2). The Bio-Medical Data Processing (BMDP) K-means clustering program with K = 2 showed that 11 of the 30 plants had a high protein nitrogen extractability as well as a high nitrogen content of the extracted protein. Among these, leaf protein from Allmania nodiflora had the highest content of crude protein (62.7%) and beta-carotene (782.4 micrograms/g). Leaf protein prepared from Hygrophila spinosa, Ottelia alismoides and Polygonum barbatum had low in-vitro digestibility. The levels of alkaloids and polyphenols were lower in the extracted protein compared to that present in the original leaf sample.