Colocasia esculenta

Taro, old cocoyam, eddoe, dasheen

Large coarse herb with crowns of large oblong-oval leaves and an abundance of large spherical underground tubers, which are important sources of food. The tubers should be cooked before being fed to livestock, particularly pigs. Uncooked taro contains substances which irritate the digestive tract and may cause poisoning if fed in large quantities. The leaves are relished by cattle and sheep. Dasheen, which is a variety of this species, is used in the same way. Very high calorific and protein production per hectare can be achieved with this plant. Ground-dried taro root has been tried as a feed for poultry; no toxic effects have been observed, but at higher levels of inclusion growth is poor.

					As % of dry matter
				DM	CP	CF	Ash	EE	NFE	Ca	P	Ref
Eddoe, fresh
leaves, Nigeria				8.2	25.0	12.1	12.4	10.7	39.8	1.74	0.58	374
Eddoe, fresh
tubers, Trinidad				26.2	8.7	1.7	4.0	0.4	85.2			117
Eddoe, peeled
tubers, Trinidad				28.3	9.5	1.7	4.1	0.1	84.6			"
Dasheen, fresh
aerial part,
Trinidad				16.7	22.3	11.4	14.0	7.4	44.9	0.05	0.04	"
Dasheen, fresh
tubers, Trinidad				23.7	3.4	3.3	3.2	0.7	89.4	0.38	0.44	"
Dasheen, peeled
tubers, Trinidad				36.4	3.2	1.8	2.4	0.5	92.1			"
Dasheen, fresh
peelings, Trinidad				18.8	4.7	9.3	6.7	1.2	78.1			"
		Amino acid composition as % of crude protein
Tuber											Ref	385
Arg	Cys	Gly	His	Ils	Leu	Lys	Met	Phe	Thr	Try	Tyr	Val
6.3	2.3	5.9	6.8	0.6	4.3	7.0	5.1	4.0	13.6	-	3.1	5.8