Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria.

  • Nigeria. Medical Department
Date:
[1932]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Annual medical and sanitary report / Nigeria. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    130/140 (page 116)
    exceedingly poor in fat. The importance of the fat content of meat lies in its content of vitamins A, D and E, as vegetable oils as a whole do not contain those vitamins in any amount which justifies their use for supplying these vitamins. The reason of the meat being so poor lies chiefly in the system of cattle ownership which obtains in Nigeria. Only old stock is sold and it is trekked long distances to the slaughter places. The animal is thin and its muscles are full of lactic acid (note very early post-mortem rigidity) and as the meat must be eaten at once the result is a stringy, tough, tasteless joint. While the present system obtains I can see no hope of good meat and a plentiful supply of it in Northern Nigeria. The conditions as regards the south can be made entirely different however. I believe that European enterprise alone will be able to supply meat and that this enterprise will give the cattle industry of the north that stimulus which will make just that difference between prosperity and the conditions which now obtain for the Fulani owners. Groundnuts. The groundnut contains about twenty-five per cent, of protein which is of first class biological value and the content of the extremely important, because indispensable, di-basic amino acids is high. In all experimental work it has been shown that groundnut meal, of average composition of protein 47, fat 10, carbohydrate 40 is completely adequate for growth and some authors claim that it is “ markedly superior ” to meat for reproduction. If this is so the contained fat must be richer than meat fat in vitamin E. Nigerian groundnut meal contains on an average— Dry matter ... . 89.7 percent. Protein.46.8 ,, ,, Oil . 7.5 ,, ,, Total ash ... ... ... ... 5.8 ,, ,, Calcium ... 0.21 ,, ,, Phosphorus ... ... ... ... 0.555 ,, ,, which is in every respect much richer than meat, but it is not of animal origin. There is an enormous production of groundnuts in Nigeria every year, and the vast bulk of the crop is exported. We therefore are exporting out of a protein starved country, a first class protein of enormous potential value to the people, and there is not even the satisfaction that it is being adequately paid for by the purchasers. If the prices issued by the Ministry of Agriculture of Britain are compared to the prices paid in Nigeria it is seen that the price of groundnut cake does not vary as does the price of the oil and the price of the whole nut in Nigeria. The oil content determines the price. Sesame. Nigerian seed has the average composition of protein 23.46, fat 52.6, carbohydrate 16.0. The protein content is that of a biologically first class protein as all essential amino acids are abundantly present with high tryphophane content. This protein has served for growth, reproduction and maintenance to an eminently satisfactory degree for the past two years in this laboratory. The mineral content of beniseed is also of astonishing magnitude. Nigerian cake has the following composition, which is compared to analyses of other well known cakes. Dry matter Sesame cake. ... 93 0 Cotton seed meal. 91.3 Linseed meal. 88.8 Protein ... ... 41.9 42.1 29.5 Oil ... 8.6 0.9 9.5 Total ash ... 7.1 6.0 9.1 Calcium ... 1.53 0.265 0.4 Phosphorus ... 1.1 1.19 0.75