Influence of poultry manure application on anti-nutrient compositions of moringa (Moringa oleifera lam) leaves

The study was carried out to determine the influence of poultry manure application on anti-nutrient compositions of old and succulent leaves of Moringa oleifera plants. Three levels of poultry manure i.e. O tonne/ha, 5 tonnes/ha and 10 tonnes/ha were used for treatment. The moringa seeds used were collected from three locations of Nigeria i.e Nsukka (Enugu State), Dutse (Jigawa State) and Jos (Plateau State). The experiment was carried out on the field in the Department of Crop Science, University of Nigeria, Nsukka. It was a 3 x 3 factorial experiment laid out in a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Old and succulent leaves of the moringa plants were sampled monthly for three months after planting and taken to the laboratory of International Institute for Tropical Agriculture, (IITA) at Ibadan (Western Nigeria) for anti-nutrient determination. Poultry manure application insignificantly (p>0.05) increased oxalate, phytate and saponin compositions of the leaves. The older leaves had higher values of tannin, oxalate, phytate and saponin than the succulent ones. Seed source did not have any significant (p>0.05) effect on the quantities of the anti-nutrients in the leaves.