Proximate Analysis and Protein Solubility of Four Cucurbits Found in Nigeria

Authors

  • Okoye Ngozi Franca Department of Biochemistry, University of Port Harcourt, Rivers State, Nigeria

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2013.20.22

Keywords:

Cucurbits, nutritive value, protein solubility, proximate analysis

Abstract

Four cucurbits grown in Nigeria namely, cucumber Cucumis sativus, snake tomato Trichosanthes cucumerina, pumpkins Cucurbita pepo and Cucurbita moschata were analysed for their nutritive value. Proximate analysis showed that the samples contained on a dry weight basis, protein values of 10.06 to 17.25%. The samples had low lipid content of 0.06 to 5.42%. The samples exhibited high carbohydrate content of 63.06 to 77.85%. Also they contained high moisture 80.43 to 97.80% and high volatile matter 90.33 to 95.50%. The results for ash ranged from 4.50 to 9.67% and then crude fibre from 2.30 to 4.60%. The samples showed minimal protein solubility at pH ranges of 4.0 to 8.0. The samples proved to be of high nutritive value.

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Published

15.12.2012

Issue

Vol. 12 No. 1 (2013)

Section

Research Article

License

Copyright (c) 2013 Asian Network for Scientific Information

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.

How to Cite

Franca, O. N. (2012). Proximate Analysis and Protein Solubility of Four Cucurbits Found in Nigeria. Pakistan Journal of Nutrition, 12(1), 20–22. https://doi.org/10.3923/pjn.2013.20.22