Parkia filicoidea

African locust bean, nitta tree

Spreading tree of medium size with compound leaves and numerous leaflets. The pods grow in bunches, are 12-25 cm long, and contain a dry powdery yellow pulp embedded in dark-brown seeds. The tree is sometimes planted not only for animal feed but also for soil improvement as it extracts nutrients from deep layers of soil. All parts of the pods can be used for animal feed and are free from glucosides. Its usefulness is increased by the fact that the pods can be harvested during the dry season when feed is scarce.

As % of dry matter

DM

CP

CF

Ash

EE

NFE

Ca

P

Ref

Whole pods, Nigeria

93.0

13.7

19.4

6.7

7.3

52.9

374

Pulp of pod, Ghana

4.9

14.6

4.6

2.3

73.6

1.32

1.76

18

Seeds, Ghana

31.8

9.4

4.4

17.4

37.0

"

Pod husk, Nigeria

93.6

4.7

24.0

8.9

1.2

61.2

374

Amino acid composition as % of crude protein

Seed

Ref

528

Arg

Cys

Gly

Hys

Ils

Leu

Lys

Met

Phe

Thr

Try

Tyr

Val

6.7

1.9

4.5

3.0

3.6

6.9

6.7

0.6

4.4

3.3

0.9

3.6

4.2