EFFECT OF CONTROLLED FERMENTATION USING ASPERGILLUS NIGER AND TRICHODERMA HARZANIUM ON NUTRIENT COMPOSITION OF PRE-TREATED BENGAL INDIGO (INDIGOFERA ARRECTA) SEEDS
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
About 700 species of flowering plants in the genus Indigofera Linn. are classified as part of the subfamily Papilionoideae of the family Fabaceae/Leguminousae. They can be found all over the world in tropical and subtropical areas. Burkill (1995) identified 60 species, and Soladoye and Lewis (2003) recorded 60 species in Nigeria, with over 60% of those being abundant in the country’s northern region and 27 species dispersed throughout the country’s south-western region. The Greek word for indigo dye, indigofera, refers to the well-known naturally occurring blue hues produced by this herb’s leaflets and branches. Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera arrecta are the two most significant species.
Indigofera species exhibit excellent environmental adaptation and have a variety of morphological and agronomic characteristics that are important for agriculture.
to their utilization as cover crops and forage (Hassen et al., 2006). Indigofera tinctoria and Indigofera suffruticosa are two of these species that are used to produce indigo dyes, while others have medicinal uses, such as Indigofera articulate, which is used to treat toothaches.
Indigofera arrecta extract is used to treat ulcer pain. Indigofera oblongifolia, Indigofera suffruticosa, and Indigofera aspalthoides are used as anti-inflammatories for the treatment of insect stings, snake bites, and swellings (Shahjahan et al., 2005).
In particular in Cameroon, Indigofera tinctoria leaves are made into a decoction and used to treat chest pains, epilepsy, nervous disorders, asthma, bronchitis, fever, complaints of the stomach, liver, kidney, and spleen (Takawira-Nyenya and Cardon, 2005). Dislocation can be cured with twine paste. the warm leaves as well Blunt out bruising (Ibe and Nwufo, 2005). A phytochemical analysis of Indigofera species reveals that they are abundant in fatty and organic acids, as well as flavonoids like carotenoids and coumarins (Yinusa et al., 2007).