Identification of structural and elemental composition of Cassia obtusifolia

Abstract

Abstract. Ahmed AYA, Marouf AAS. 2017. Short Communication: Identification of structural and elemental composition of Cassia obtusifolia. Bioteknologi 14: 12-15. Kawal is a dried fermentation product of sicklepod (Cassia obtusifolia) leaves. The people of Sudan and Chad use kawal as a meat substitute. In this study, kawal was obtained in powder form from Forbranga, Darfour. The objective of this study was identification the chemical compositions of kawal. FTIR spectrum and atomic absorption spectrophotometer methods were used. In FTIR experimental procedure, the sample was used as a dried powder. While for the atomic absorption and inductively coupled plasma, the sample was used after combustion for extracting the minerals (K, P, Na, Mg, Ca, Zn and Fe). The investigations with FTIR showed that the fermented leaves of C. obtusifolia (Kawal) consisted of several types of molecular functional groups: alkyl halide, alkene, a nitro functional group, aromatic, carbonyl, alcohol, esters, ether, and acid and amides. Mineral contents of the samples were identified. About 2.50% is the presence of calcium, with the other minerals as Mg 0.66%, P 0.393%, Na 0.165% and K about 1.595%. Moreover, for extracting the iron (Fe) and zinc (Zn) minerals of fermented cassia leaves, the atomic absorption spectrophotometer was used and found that Zn was 0.665mg/L and Fe consist of the value 15.6411mg/L.