Volume 1, Issue 1 (2020)

Vincent Nwalieji Okafor^1,*, Regina Igwe Anyalebechi² , Ugochukwu Wilson Okafor³ , Chinwe Priscilla Okonkwo⁴ , Joy Ngozika Obiefuna⁴ , Matthew Chiemezie Obiadi⁴

¹Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, PMB 5025, Awka, Nigeria

²Department of Science Laboratory Technology, Federal Polytechnic Oko, Anambra State, Nigeria

³National Board for Technology Incubation, Federal Ministry of Science and Technology, Abuja, Nigeria

⁴Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka, Nigeria

*Corresponding Author:

Dr. Vincent Nwalieji Okafor
Department of Pure and Industrial Chemistry, Nnamdi Azikiwe University, PMB 5025, Awka, Nigeria, Tel: +2348067965292, E-mail: vnw.okafor@unizik.edu.ng

Received: June 20, 2020; Accepted: July 06, 2020; Published: July 13, 2020

Citation: Okafor VN, Anyalebechi RI, Okafor UW, Okonkwo CP, Obiefuna JN, Obiadi MC. Phytochemical Constituents of Extracts of Hops and Some Potential Nigerian Hop Substitutes: A Comparative Study in Beer Brewing. Int J Biol Chem Res. 2020;1(1):1-7.

Copyright: © 2020 Okafor VN, et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

Abstract

Phytochemical constituents of methanolic extracts from four Nigerian bitter vegetables namely Garcinia kola (bitter cola), Azadirachta indica (neem), Vernonia amygdalina (bitter leaf) and Gongronema latifolium (heckel) and in comparison with hop extracts were evaluated quantitatively. Extracts of the plant parts commonly consumed by people were used in this study. The aim was to ascertain the potentiality of using the Nigerian vegetables as suitable and available hop substitutes in beer brewing with respect to quantitative constitution of various phytochemicals in the extracts of these vegetables and the hops. Analyses of alkaloids, tannins, saponins, oxalates, phytatic acid, trypsin inhibitors, cardiac glycosides, haemagglutinins, cyanogenic glycosides and hydrogen cyanide were carried out using their respective standard methods. The phytochemical constituents of the vegetables were statistically ranked by the application of Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The results showed that all the phytochemicals analyzed were present in all the plant extracts. Alkaloid content in all the extracts ranged between 3.2 and 4.8%, tannin ranged from 2.0 to 4.8%, saponin (0.80-5.20%), phytate (0.99-1.68%), trypsin inhibitors (2.80-17.30%), hemagglutinin (3.879-7.240%) and cardiac glycoside (3.5-6.0%). The concentration of oxalate ranged from 0.0405 to 0.1020mg/100g, cyanogenic glycoside (0.216-0.810ppm) and hydrogen cyanide (0.540-1.404ppm). It was established from ranking that the order of closeness of the extracts from the bitter vegetables to isomerized hop extract was G. latifolium (0.919) > G. kola (0.819) > A. indica (0.712) > V. amygdalina (0.517) while that to hop leaf extract was V. amygdalina (0.964) > G. kola (0.679) > G. latifolium (0.433) > A. indica (0.288). Hence, the extracts from tested Nigerian bitter vegetables could be used as suitable substitutes for hops in beer brewing. Extract of G. latifolium had the greatest potential as substitute for isomerized hop extract and that of V. amygdalina was the closest substitute for hop leaf extract.

Keywords

Phytochemicals, Extracts, Hops, Hop substitutes, Beer brewing