American Journal of BioScience 2020; 8(2): 28-36 http://www.sciencepublishinggroup.com/j/ajbio doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20200802.11 ISSN: 2330-0159 (Print); ISSN: 2330-0167 (Online) Nutrient and Essential Oil Compositions of Heterotis rotundifolia Leaves Charity Uchechi Ogunka-Nnoka 1, * , Jane Adaeze Agwu 1 , Felix Uchenna Igwe 2 1 Department of Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Choba, Rivers State, Nigeria 2 Department of Biochemistry, Rivers State University, Nkpolu-Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria Email address: * Corresponding author To cite this article: Charity Uchechi Ogunka-Nnoka, Jane Adaeze Agwu, Felix Uchenna Igwe. Nutrient and Essential Oil Compositions of Heterotis rotundifolia Leaves. American Journal of BioScience. Vol. 8, No. 2, 2020, pp. 28-36. doi: 10.11648/j.ajbio.20200802.11 Received: April 6, 2020; Accepted: April 29, 2020; Published: April 30, 2020 Abstract: This study evaluated the nutrient and essential oil compositions of Heterotis rotundifolia leaves. The leaves were carefully sorted and air-dried for 14 days at room temperature (20-25°C). The dried leaves were ground into powder using a grinding mill. Proximate composition, vitamins and physicochemical properties were analyzed using AOAC method while fatty acid and essential oil compositions were characterized using GC-MS. The proximate composition of the leaves showed higher carbohydrate content (80.97±0.03%) and moderate protein content (9.9±0.06%); while lipid (3.13±0.01%), fibre (1.30±0.01%), moisture (2.90±0.03%) and ash (1.89±0.02%) contents were low. Physicochemical properties of the oil revealed a high saponification value (238.43±0.84mg/KOH) and peroxide value (47.20±0.38mEq/kg). Fatty acid composition shows 83.69% saturated fatty acid with stearic acid (22.69±0.02%), myristic acid (18.54±0.01%) and palmitic acid (15.48±0.02%) as predominant fatty acids. Unsaturated fatty acid composition was 9.72% with oleic acid (9.49±0.04%) and linolenic acid (0.23±0.01%) as predominant fatty acids. Vitamin composition also revealed higher concentrations of vitamins C (695.57±0.20mg/kg), B 6 (70.33±0.88mg/kg), A (61.67±0.02mg/kg) and D (26.08±0.06mg/kg). Essential oil composition revealed a total of 24 compounds which include; long chain fatty acid, fatty acid methyl esters, hydrocarbons and alcoholic compound amongst which Neophytadiene (14.427%), n-Hexadecanoic acid (14.148%) and squalene (11.258%) were present in substantial amount. The proximate and essential oil compositions, vitamin content and physicochemical characteristics suggest that H. rotundifolia leaves have potential nutritional and medicinal value to man and animals. Keywords: Heterotis rotundifolia, Leaves, Proximate Composition, Vitamins, Fatty Acid, Essential Oils 1. Introduction All over the world, the focus on plant research has increased greatly in recent times and enormous observations on the potential of medicinal plants employed in traditional systems have been discovered [1]. Plants have served as the basis of sophisticated traditional medicine system for thousands of years in countries such as China and India. World Health Organization has described traditional medicine as one of the surest means to achieve total health care coverage of the world population [2]. Literature survey shows that the therapeutic efficacy of herbal plant is on the basis of proximate and elemental compositions. Proximate analyses of medicinal plants play a vital role in evaluating their nutritional significance [3, 4]. To better understand the worth of various medicinal plant species which are also used as food along with their therapeutic benefits, determination of their nutritional significance is therefore essential. World Health Organization (2005) [5] therefore emphasizes the importance and need of determining proximate and micronutrients composition as well as phytochemical constituents in establishing standardization of the medicinal plants and herbal products [6]. Essential oils are volatile, lipid-soluble secondary metabolites of aromatic plants, synthesized from all parts of the plant and are characterized by their strong odor. They are used in the cosmetics and pharmaceutical industries for their fragrances, taste, antibacterial, antifungal, antiviral, analgesic, sedative, anti-inflammatory, spasmolytic and local