What’s liquid, full of vitamins, green and with a name
common to most East Africans?
Nakati juice.
Ummm. Yes, but perhaps it needs another title. While some Ugandans have fond
childhood memories of chewing on nakati as their parents wove a tale of how it would
increase their intelligence, most turn up their noses at the green, leafy vegetable’s bitter
taste and the remembrance of times when the family could afford little else.
Nakati, which also is known as African eggplant, needs to rise above its bad reputation,
according to two Uganda Christian University (UCU) Food Science and Technology
students and their teaching assistant. They aim to do just that by using it as the main
ingredient in beverage and food recipes that reinforce nutritional value and good taste.
Jovan Kyambadde, teaching assistant, UCU Department of Agricultural and Biological
Science, and students Athieno Sheilla and Alexis Ossiya, explain that the nutrition part is
that nakati is full of iron and vitamins. Adding sweet-tasting ingredients masks the
unpleasant flavor. After dodging raindrops to pluck nakati leaves from their Mukono
campus garden and purchasing fruit outside the campus gate on the afternoon of March 6,
they chopped, cut and blended the juice, sharing a not-so-secret recipe.
•Four medium size mangos and one-fourth of a pineapple for flavor, one lemon for
increased vitamin C and preservative, one freshly picked bunch of nakati (main
ingredient) and honey for sweetener.
Nakati is the main ingredient because it has certain special health benefits such as cancerfighting compounds, anti-aging properties, and proper bone and brain development.
Mangoes and pineapples likewise are rich in vitamins and antioxidants that help to
prevent cancer, improve skin complexion and greatly boost immunity.
The taste-testers on this day were five nearby students, who gave mixed reactions about
thickness, sweetness and whether they would prefer this no-added-sugar, vegetable and
fruit juice over the more common, sugar-added, fruit-only beverages.
“We plan to do more testing with students in the large cafeteria,” Sheilla said. “We think
we could make money and help others do it.”
While one end result is making money for the inventors and healthier lifestyles for their
customers, this project also is about helping Uganda’s local farmers with their profits,
Jovan explained, adding, “Everywhere you look in Uganda, there’s nakati.”
The students prepared the drink using an electric blender. But for locals without
electricity and a mechanical mixer, the juice still can be made with added shredding,
pounding and hand pressure, using a sieve to filter out the juice.
Under the title “Better Vegetables, Better Lives,” the UCU Department of Agricultural
and Biological Science works with a dozen other partners to improve production and use
of African indigenous vegetables for greater nutrition and income. The plan is to not only
share nakati products on the university campus, but also to teach local farmers how to do
the same.
Each Wednesday morning, the “students and staff of the Department of Agriculture and
Biological Sciences of UCU board a bus, and after a 45-minute drive, are dropped off to
work with local farmers.
“The farmers have come to regard themselves as university teachers, which they are in
that they put our students’ learning in real context,” Jovan said. “At the same time, our
students are teaching the farmers what they know about crop rotation, germination,
higher yield and marketing.”
Nakati, for example, is going to waste when it could be used for juice, biscuits and other
products. In addition to experimentation with nakati beverages, the students are exploring
use of the vegetable with g-nuts and other ingredients for snacks.
“When I was a little girl, I was told that eating nakati would make me more intelligent,”
Sheilla said. “I know now that’s not true, but using nakati in recipes is pretty smart
nutritionheights 