Cassava roots form a significant part of the diet in many countries in Africa and the leaves are also accepted as vegetable in Nigeria and Sierria Leone. The major drawback to the wide use of cassava leaves as vegetable is the presence of high content of Anti – nutrients in which the presence is a threat to human’s health. In this study, the removal of anti- nutrients in cassava leaves at safe conditions for human’s consumption was investigated. About ten of the topmost leaves of cassava plant of three species [Farmer pride formally known as 1632 (TMS-981632), Fine face formally known as 0505(TMS- 980505) and TME 419)] were plucked. Leaves of each species were pounded separately and crushed until they are soft and liquid oozes from it. Then, varied temperature and time between (100 – 1050C) and (5 – 20mins) were employed to investigate the effect of heat treatment on the removal of anti – nutrients in each of the leaves. After heat treatment of each sample, the percentage yield was determined. The concentration of the cyanide, oxalate, phytate and tannin left were investigated for in each species, using Alkaline picrate method, titrimetric method, the methods described by Markkar and Foln – Deris Spectrophotometric method respectively. From the results, the range of the anti-nutrients in the investigated species for thirteen runs ranged between 275.00- 30.00mg/kg, 4270.00 – 32.00mg/kg, 230- 32mg/kg and 16 .20- 0.70mg/kg respectively. The results revealed that the FT, FF, TME leaves at 105/15mis, have the least antinutrient of (52.00, 30.00, 110.00/65.00, 32.00, 76.00/ 68.00, 32.00, 46.00/ 1.10, 0.70, 0.85)mg/kg cyanide, oxalate, phytate and tannin respectively. At these permissible values i.e the optimized condition of the investigation, the leaves are safe for consumption as vegetables.
Keywords: Cassava leaves, vegetables, anti – nutrients, optimized condition.