PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

The objective of the study was to determine the content of moisture, ash, protein, fat, carbohydrate, crude fibre, total sugar and amino acid profile for the medicinal herb Clinacanthus nutans. Three-month-old Sabah Snake Grass/Belalai Gajah (C. nutans) was collected from You Dun Chao Herb Farm (YDC) and Yik Poh Ling Herb Farm (YPL) in Negeri Sembilan, Malaysia. All the experiments were conducted in triplicate. Total crude fibre was found significantly higher in the stem samples. A comparison of non-shaded and shaded samples from YDC revealed higher (p<0.05) moisture, protein, ash, total crude fibre and total sugar content in the shaded samples for both leaves and the stem. Total fat was higher (p<0.05) in the shaded leaves than in the non-shaded leaves but it was the opposite for the stem. In comparing non-shaded samples from the two different farms for moisture, protein, ash, fat and total sugar content, the YPL leaves and stems showed significantly higher amounts than the YDC samples. The leaves of C. nutans contained more amounts of all essential and non-essential amino acids than the stem. Aspartic acid exhibited significantly higher amounts in both leaves (3.48, 1.08 and 2.13% of dry weight sample for YPL, YDC non-shaded and shaded samples, respectively) and stem (2.17, 0.95 and 1.96% of dry weight sample for YPL, YDC non-shaded and shaded samples, respectively) than the other amino acids. Geographical factors and planting conditions revealed different nutritive composition.