Nutritional and Antinutritional Analysis of the Seed and Seed Oil of Citrullus Ecirrhosis (Wild Melon)

Abstract

Attempt was made to determine the nutritional and anti nutritional composition of Wild melon (C. ecirrhosus ) popularly known as “Gunar shanu in Hausa land, using suitable methods of analyses. The results for proximate analyses (% DW) showed a composition of 3.73 ± moisture, 2.12 ± 0.08 ash content, 26.36 ± 0.10 crude protein, 50.67 ± crude lipid, 2.17 ± 0.29 crude fibre, 18.69 ± 0.82 carbohydrate and energy value of 601.7 ± 8.75 Kcal/ 100g. Amino acids determination revealed a profile containing essential amino acids for adults, but leucine, lysine, and threonine are below the requirement value for children. The oil was found to composed of a combination of high concentration (67.3%) of unsaturated fatty acids (linoleic acid C:18.2) and oleic C:18.1), and low concentration (36.6%) of saturated fatty acids (stearic acid C: 18.0 and palmitic acid C:16.0). This arrangement gave the oil good properties suitable for industrial and domestic activities. High concentration of nitrate (151666±7637), phytate (136.04±1.54) and saponin (18.65 ± 0.2mg/100gDW) were recorded in the seed, this is notwithstanding because boiling reduce their effect to a minimum. The overall result implies that seed of the wild melon possessed the potential to be used as a source of nutrition.