Total carbohydrate level was measured using the anthrone
reagent method using glucose as a standard (Hedge & Hofreiter,
1962). Milled and dried samples were hydrolysed with 5 ml of
2.5 N HCl, neutralized with sodium carbonate then mixed with
4 ml freshly prepared anthrone reagent. A standard graph was
drawn of the concentration of standard on the X-axis versus absorbance
on the Y-axis. The amount of carbohydrate present was calculated
from the graph as follows: mg of glucose 100/volume of
test sample.