Updates on Nutritional Diversity in Sphenostylis stenocarpa (Hoechst ex. A. Rich.) Harms. for Food Security and Conservation

Neglected and underutilized plant genetic resources constitute opportunity for diversification of food and environmental services globally, particularly within communities in developing country. They can provide, in some cases, higher nutrient content than traditional globally accepted staples commonly consumed. Currently, with climate uncertainty and the desire and challenge for sustainably produced food, there is an urgent need to promote crop diversity. Benefits are also likely to come from the greater resilience to environmental stress and the lower resource demand associated with growing these neglected crops. This study aims at quantifying the nutritional variety in 34 accessions of Sphenostylis stenocarpa (African yam bean) sourced from farmers, marketers and consumers for food and nutrient security. The accessions were evaluated for variability in their nutritional components based on proximate and vitamin values using Multidimensional Analysis (MDA), Principal Component Analysis (PCA) and cluster analysis. Highly diversity were observed among these accessions in most of the traits measured. The MDA analysis showed that accessions AB2, AB4, AB3, EB5, AB1 and EB6 ranked 1st to 6th, respectively. The PCA revealed that PCA 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 loaded the most significant variables which contributed more in discriminating the accessions examined. PC1 and PC3 gave the maximum variability for two traits each while PC2, PC4 and PC5 loaded 1 each. The cluster analysis highlighted three distinct clads. Group I clades with 19 accessions, group II, with 3 accessions and group III clustered 12 accessions. MDA and Principal Component Analysis (PCA) were highly concordant. They serve as robust tools for enhancing breeding program for genetic improvement and germplasm conservation.