Effect of accessions on the chemical quality of fresh pumpkin

Abstract

Twenty (20) fresh pumpkin fruits were assessed for dry matter, total soluble solid, total sugar, reducing sugar, titratable acidity, pH, ascorbic acid and sugar-to-acid ratio. Statistically significant (P < 0.01) differences were found for dry matter, total soluble solid, total sugar, reducing sugar, titratable acidity, ascorbic acid, pH and sugar to acid ratio for the 20 fresh pumpkin fruit accessions. Accession 8007 had the highest dry matter, total titratable acidity, total soluble solid and total sugar content. Accession 8007 was also found to have high concentration of ascorbic acid although pumpkin fruit accession 8807 had the highest ascorbic acid. Pumpkin accession 4707 had the highest amount of reducing sugar and titratable acidity while accession 7707 had the highest pH and total soluble solid/ total titratable acid (TSS/TA) ratio. Pumpkin accession 8007 was found to be superior variety with the highest nutritional value while accession 1307 and 3907 were found to be inferior to the accessions evaluated in this study.

Key words: Pumpkin, accession, Ethiopia, nutritional value.