Levels Of Essential Elements In Three Tef Eragrostis Tef(zucc.)trotter Varieties.

Tef, [Eragrostis tef(zucc.)Trotter] is an indigenous crop plant in Ethiopia. It providesrnthe most staple food-Enjera for most Ethiopians. An efficient wet digestion procedurernwith the percentage recovery ranges from 85.66 to 105.22% (%R ± SD) was developedrnfor tef flour sample using standard addition (spiking) method. The optimal digestionrnprocedure allowed the use of acids with minimum volume leading to reduced blankrncontamination, and lower detection limit. The levels of nine essential elements (Na, K,rnMg, Ca, Mn, Co, Cu, Zn &Fe) were determined by FAAS applying four point calibrationrncurve in the three most common and commercially available tef types (Red, Mixed andrnWhite tef) collected from four mill houses in Arada sub city of Addis Ababa. Thernobserved average metal concentration in red, mixed and white tef respectivelyrnare:Na(22.06 ± 1.46,25.68 ± 2.05,22.89 ± 1.42), K (215.81 ± 8.13, 219.23 ± 8.35,rn205.59 ± 7.17), Mg (161.91 ± 7.76, 173.7 ± 8.89, 153.16 ± 9.45), Ca (178.54 ± 9.5,rn168.64 ± 11.03, 180.7 ± 14.65), Mn (22.36 ± 0.15, 13.26 ± 0.029, 4.84 ± 0.044), Corn(6.20 ± 5.38, 5.21 ± 0.29, 7.89 ± 0.75), Cu (2.51 ± 0.30, 3.79 ± 0.1, 1.08 ± 0.075), Znrn(4.79 ± 10.7, 3.79 ± 0.1, 2.98 ± 0.12), and Fe (24.62 ± 1.07,20.05 ± 1.4, 15.95 ± 1.7)rnmg/100g of dry weight. A statistical analysis of variance (ANOVA) using excel andrnSPSS soft ware revealed that there is a significant difference between the mineralrncontent of the three tef types at 95% ( p ≤ 0.05) CL. Tukey pair wise comparisonsrnalso confirmed this difference in mineral contents of the samples. Red tef has higherrnessential metal contents followed by mixed tef. Further more, all the three-tef typesrnconsidered are rich in their mineral contents compared to maize, barely, sorghum,rnwheat, kocho and bulla, hence tef could be suitable sources of dietary minerals.rnKey words: Tef, Eragrostis tef, red tef, mixed tef , white tef, essential elements,rnFlame Atomic Absorption spectrophotometer

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