NUTRITIONAL POTENTIAL OF COWPEA CULTIVARS IN AGROECOSYSTEMS OF PINAR DEL RIO, CUBA
2025
Santana-Baños, Yoerlandy | Carrodeguas Díaz, Sergio
In the face of the challenges posed by climate change in tropical regions, cowpea (Vigna unguiculata) has emerged as a promising alternative grain legume under Cuban soil and climatic conditions. The objective of the present work was to characterize some elements of the nutritional composition (moisture, ash, protein and minerals) in seeds of cowpea cultivars (INIFAT-93, INIFAT-94, IPA 206 and TITÁN) harvested in “San Juan y Martínez”, Pinar del Río. The flours were obtained by grinding the seeds in a Thermomix®, using cycles of 30 seconds at maximum power (level 10) and 2.5 minutes at level six. Subsequently, the resultant flours were sieved through a 500 µm pore size sieve. Moisture and ash were determined by the gravimetric method, while nitrogen (N) content was quantified by the Kjeldahl method and minerals by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-OES: Thermo ICAP 6500 DUO). The proximate analysis revealed that the cultivars exhibited moisture values ranging from 5.6% to 9.5%, ash between 3.3% and 3.9%, and protein content between 22.1% an 30.8%, with INIFAT-93, INIFAT-94 and IPA 206 exhibiting protein contents exceeding 25% and with significant differences observed in comparison to TITÁN. The total macroelement content ranged from 2049 to 2947 milligrams per 100 grams, while the microelement content ranged from 13.2 to 18.7 milligrams per 100 grams. Similar iron contents were found among the cultivars, as well as higher calcium and sodium contents in INIFAT (93 and 94), while in the other mineral components, higher concentrations were recorded in IPA 206 and TITÁN. The results obtained suggest that cowpea cultivation could constitute an effective agroecological strategy to promote resilience and food security in the agroecosystems of Pinar del Río.
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