Nutritional value OF Bottle Gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) Seeds

Abstract

Whole seeds, dehulled seeds and seed coats of bottle gourd seed (Lagenaria siceraria) were analysed for their proximate, amino acids and mineral compositions. The results of the analysis showed that, whole seed has highest content of moisture (17.5  0.21%) and ash (5.80  0.83%) while dehulled had highest amount of crude protein (35.0  0.48%) and crude lipid (39.22  1.48%) and seed coat contain highest amount of crude fiber (59.05  0.98%). The study showed a profile of seventeen amino acids (isoleucine, leucine, lysine, methionine, cysteine, phenylalanine, tyrosine, threonine, valine, alanine, arginine, aspartic acid, glutamic acid, glycine, histidine, proline and serine) with glutamic acid, leucine and aspartic acid being the predominant amino acid. The percentages (%) of essential and non-essential amino acids in dehulled seeds, whole seeds and seed coats were 44 vs 56, 41 vs 59 and 51 vs 49 respectively. The dehulled seeds contained essential amino acids that were found to be higher than WHO/FAO/UNU requirement. In whole seeds, threonine, lysine and lysine were found to be the most limiting amino acids. Seed coats were deficient in all the essential amino acids except for valine. Generally, the mineral composition of the seed was found to be relatively high, indicating the seed to be a good source of dietary elements, except for Ca, Zn, Co and Cr where very low values were obtained. Finally, the results of the study indicate that, bottle gourd seed is a potential source of protein, lipid, micro and macronutrients, and if properly utilised, could contribute in solving the problem of malnutrition and also serve as raw material for agro-based industries

Keywords: Bottle gourd seeds, seed coat, proximate analysis, minerals and Amino acid composition.

Global Journal of Pure and Applied Sciences Vol. 14 (3) 2008: pp. 301-306