Chemical Composition Profile of Wild Acacia oerfota (Forssk) Schweinf Seed Growing in the South of Iran

Acacia is a genus belonging to the Fabaceae family and comprises about 135 species of trees which are widely spread throughout the arid and semi-arid tropics. There was no phytochemical investigation on A. Oerfota (Forssk) Schweinf seed growing wild in south of Iran. Hence the current study includes analyses of Chemical composition of A. Oerfota seed to evaluate its nutritive potential value as a new source of enriched seed for nutritional purposes. A.Oerfota seeds were collected in August 2014 from Sarkhun village, Bandar Abbas, Hormozgan Province, Iran. The samples were analyzed by standardized international protocols in Research Laboratory in Pharmaceutical Sciences Branch, Islamic Azad University. Obviously in A. Oerfota the order of amount of the some mineral element contents such as zinc copper, iron, and calcium are different in comparison by other Acacia seeds studied in Iran in recent studies. The crude protein content of Iranian Acacia oerfota examined in this study which reached 25.06 and this value is significantly higher and superior than other A. oerfota reported in other countries especially in Africa samples and even higher to A. Nilotica. . Therefore due to the seed protein, Tanin and minerals of A. Oerfota could be a new source of edible vegetable after the future toxicological studies.