Abstract

The plant Hyptis spicigera is a medicinal plant used traditionally to treat ailments such as headaches, and colds, and has been used as insects’ repellent. The seeds contain significant amount of lipids. There appears to be few reports of the chemical composition ofthe seeds of H. spicigera. Therefore, proximate composition (moisture, ash, protein, fibre, lipid, and carbohydrate contents) of the seeds of local H. spicigera and physicochemical characteristics (colour, odour, pH, refractive index, acid value, iodine value, peroxide value, and saponification value) of Soxhlet extracted oil were determined in. The results showed the seeds to have moisture (3.50±0.5%), ash (5.33±0.76%), lipids (59.00±0.73 %), protein (20.56±0.22%), carbohydrate (7.36±0.14%), fibre (4.25±0.78%) and significant amounts (g/100 g protein) of 10 essential amino acids and
vitamin E (1.32±0.05mg/g). The seed oil was liquid at 25 °C (room temparature), amber with unobjectionable odour, pH of 6.32±0.21, RI 1.73±0.80, acid value 10.53 ± 0.13 mg/g, iodine value of 11.07 ± 0.14 gI2/g, peroxide value of 50 ± 1.0 mEq/kg and saponification value of 176.4 ± 10.7 mgKOH/g. The results suggest H. spicigera seed contains an appreciable amount of essential amino acids and its oil could be consumed, used in industry for soap making and biodiesel production.

Key words: Hyptis spicigera, Seed and oil, Proximate composition, Physicochemical properties