Nutritional value OF Bottle Gourd (<i>Lagenaria siceraria</i>) Seeds

Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research), 2013

Aims: Bottle gourd is a useful crop to include in climate change adaption strategies for agronomy. However, diversity in plant and seed forms makes it difficult to predict performance under field management. There is a dearth of knowledge on the relationship between seed morphology and seed performance, namely, germination and early establishment of seedlings. This led to a need to evaluate seed morphology of different bottle gourd landraces and its effect on seed quality as defined by germination and vigour. Methodology: Six mature fruits of different bottle gourd landraces were collected from subsistence farmers and seeds from each fruit were morphologically characterized. Standard germination test, root: shoot ratio, seedling fresh mass, seedling dry mass, germination velocity index (GVI) and electrical conductivity were used to establish seed quality and vigour. Results: Although all traits were significantly different, most of them were not good indicators of seed quality. Seed coat thickness isolated varieties by provenance and was inversely proportional to root: shoot ratio as a measure of seedling establishment. Conclusion: It is concluded that Lagenaria siceraria seed morphology could be a useful trait for selection of planting material in the context of seed germination as a trait.

International Journal of Biological and Chemical Sciences, 2013

Dehulled loofah gourd seeds (DLGS), Luffah cylindrica was divided into three parts namely; raw (DLGSR), boiled for 5 min at 100 o C (DLGSB) and cooked for 30 min (DGLSC). Proximate composition, amino acids, amino acid scores and energy were determined in DLGSR, DLGSB and DLGSC and fatty acids constituents only in DLGSR on dry matter basis. Crude protein content of DLGSB and DLGSC were similar and significantly lower (p<0.05) than DLGSR while crude fibre, carbohydrate, ash, and the ether extract were not (p>0.05). Glutamic acid (Glu), aspartic acid (Asp), leucine (Leu), arginine (Arg), lysine (Lys), valine (Val) and phenylalanine (Phe) were concentrated in DLGSR in the order listed. Arg, Thr, Asp, Glu, Pro,Gly and Ala were significantly highest (p<0.05) in DLGSC while Lys, Asp and Ser were highest (p<0.05) in DLGSR and Gly and Tyr in DLGSB. The percent total non-essential amino acid (TNEAA) and the protein efficiency ratio (P-PER) were highest (p>0.05) in raw and boiled seeds respectively. The limiting amino acid in the samples was Met+Cyst. The fatty acid constituents were myristic, palmitic, palmitoleic, stearic, oleic, linoleic and arachidic acid. DLGSR contained 99.1% total fatty acids, 31.4% total saturated fatty acids, 67.7% total unsaturated fatty acids. Loofah gourd seed is a good potential vegetable protein source as food/feed.

Journal of Human Ecology, 2015

Bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) is an under-researched crop in South Africa, which has the potential to boost food security. However, the nutritional information on the crop is scant. This led to a need to determine the nutritional value of this crop and its potential to meet the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDA) for various nutrients. The experiment was conducted at a controlled environmental facility with two landraces, which were compared with two commercial pumpkin cultivars. All varieties were found to be good sources of calcium, iron, magnesium and zinc, as well as nitrogen, manganese and copper. With response to the leaf harvesting at different times during crop growth, most varieties had higher nutrients during the early stages of development and before flowering. All varieties were shown to meet the RDA for all reported nutrients. These results suggest that bottle gourd has the potential to be used as a crop to achieve household food security.

International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences, 2021

Curcubita pepo seeds have been widely consumed in Zimbabwe way back in the 1970s, but still locally, there is no data on the nutritional quality of Curcubita pepo seeds, hence the study attempted to avail this information. Curcubita pepo seeds from selected places in Zimbabwe were analysed. The proximate analysis including major nutrients and minerals were determined. The C. pepo seed had a moisture content of 5.662±0.016gkg-1. Significantly, Curcubita pepo had high amounts of crude oil and proteins as compared to other edible oil rich seeds. The crude oil content and protein were 43.460±0.098gkg-1 and 32.860±0.103gkg-1 respectively. Other components such as carbohydrates, crude fibre and energy were 12.160±0.142gkg-1 , 2.578±0.007gkg-1 and 562.82±0.132gkg-1 correspondingly. Ash content was 3.324±0.010gkg-1 which was further analysed into various major minerals giving analysed means as Na (67.956±0.037gkg-1), Zn (1.244±0.010gkg-1), P (1040.8±0.663gkg-1), Fe (11.980±0.086gkg-1), Ca (141±0.316gkg-1) and Mg (344.6±0.245gkg-1). The findings indicated that C. pepo seeds are a good alternative source of highly nutritious food for instance proteins and lipids as well as minerals (Mg, Ca, Zn, P and Fe) that could greatly contribute to human nutritional requirements. However, it still remains important to further profile the quality of the lipids and proteins from C. pepo seed so as to verify their essentiality and availability to the human body as well as evaluating the presence of other bioactive and antinutritional factors that might be present in these seeds.

Egyptian Journal of Botany

B OTTLE Gourd (Lageneria siceraria) has prevalent use as a vegetable in different parts of the world. It is an extremely advantageous resource because it comprises lots of nutritional properties required for nourishment and necessary for health. Approximately, it contains: (moisture, protein, fat, carbohydrate, fibre, ash, and energy of 94.5±0. 06; 1.2±0.06; 0.2±0.02; 3.75±0.03; 0.7±0.01; 0.5±0.01; 15±0.12 %), respectively. In addition, bottle gourd is rich in minerals like calcium, phosphorous and also have a good source of dietary fibres. Recently, the attention on bottle gourd has been increasing as a nutritional element/health supplement in the diet due its function in the prevention and control of the diseases like indigestion, ulcers, stress, depression, and premature greying of hairs. In spite of this, bottle gourd also acts as a remedy for diseases like insanity, epilepsy, and nervous disorders and the fibres present in it are helpful in reduction of coronary heart diseases and diabetic occurrence. It contains high choline levels, metabolic/metabolites precursors desirable for the functions of the brain, as well as amino acids, vitamins, and minerals that help in synthesising neurotransmitters. In this review, an insight is presented on the effective properties, health-related, and other significance of bottle gourd in various food products as well as in pharmacological products.

The present study was aimed to evaluate physical properties of bottle gourd seeds viz., size, shape, surface area, unit mass, densities, angle of repose and coefficient of friction at the moisture content of 10.04 % (wet basis). The results revealed that the average length, width and thickness of seeds were 14.84, 7.44 and 3.34 mm, respectively. The aspect ratio, sphericity, surface area and 1,000 seed mass of bottle gourd seeds were found to be 50.45 %, 0.48, 161.78 mm2 and 143.77 g, respectively. The average values of true and bulk densities were 721.30 and 453.80 kg m-3, respectively and the corresponding porosity was 37.07%. The terminal velocity was 6.14 m s-1. The coefficient of friction on plywood and plastic surfaces were observed to be the highest and lowest, respectively. As the bottle gourd seed oil contains omega-3 and ‘Lagenina’, the information obtained through the experiments is key parameters not only for food processors but also to the engineers for designing proces...

Journal of Agriculture Research and Technology, 2022

The Cucurbitaceae family includes the Luffa sponge gourd (Luffa cylindrica) having chromosome number 2n= 26. It is a tropical and subtropical annual climbing vine with tendrils that grows in tropical and subtropical climates. The seeds are smooth, flat, and black or white in colour (Okusanya, O.T, 1978). Sponge gourd is a typical vegetable that looks like ridge gourd. This vegetable is abundant in almost all of India's states. Gilki and Turai are two of the most common names for sponge gourd. Tropical and subtropical zones are where sponge gourd is grown. It thrives in hot and humid environments. It is sensitive to frost and cold temperatures. It can be cultivated in a variety of soil types, however sandy loam soil is the best. When eaten, sponge gourd fruit is highly digested and increases appetite. In most of the developing world, 'hidden hunger,' or mineral shortage in edible grains, is a major health concern for people (Buyckx, 1993; Ramalingaswami, 1995). Humans, for example, may have a decrease of immunity, poor wound healing, and dermatitis as a result of dietary Zn deficiency (van Campen, 1991). Zn nutrition, on the other hand, aids in the prevention of infectious disorders like as diarrhoea (Black, 1998; Fuchs, 1998) and immunity (Shankar and Prasad, 1998).

Asian Journal of Food Research and Nutrition, 2022

Aims: This study aimed at assessing nutritional composition of the seed and peel of Azanza garckeana. Methodology: The fruit of A. garckeana was purchased from old Market in sokoto, sokoto State, Nigeria. The proximate compositions were determined using standard method of AOAC. Results: The result of the analysis revealed that, the carbohydrate content (47.88% and 45.32%) was the most abundant biological component in both the seed and peel followed by crude fibre (29.00% and 28.05%) respectively. However, no significance difference was observed between the seed and peel for both carbohydrate and crude fibre. The crude lipid (10.70%) and crude protein (10.01%) of the peel was significantly higher than that of the seed (6.60% and 4.85% respectively). Ash (5.10%, 8.33%) and moisture content (6.66%, 5.00%) in both samples were also found in considerable amount. Conclusion: This result shows that the peel of Azanza garckeana, which is ordinarily considered as waste, may possess nutritional benefits.

Four species of gourd fruits were characterized for dietary values and anti-nutrient constituents. Proximate analysis revealed that the dry matter content ranged from 6.75 to 8.72 g/100g. Oriental guard has the highest value of dry and ash contents. The crude fibres was highest in ash gourd while cucumber has the least crude fat content. The crude protein (1.87 -7.88 g/100g) was highest in ash gourd and a maximum of 76.12 g/100g carbohydrate was obtained in cucumber. Sodium contents (1046 mg/kg) was highest in cucumber, iron and manganese (6.5 and 1.7 mg/kg respectively) in oriental gourd, calcium (99.4 mg/kg) in ash gourd and zinc (2.2 mg/kg) in marrow gourd. The level of vitamin C varied from 21.82 mg/100g in cucumber to 60.00 mg/100g in ash gourd while the least energy value (977.69 kJ/100g) was obtained in ash gourd. Absorption, gelation, emulsion and foaming capacities of the oil from the fruits were reported. Low levels of anti-nutrients (oxalate, phytate and tannins) were obtained among the gourd fruits studied The rich energy, dietary fibre, vitamin C, mineral contents and low levels of anti-nutrients in the gourd fruits are indices of their potentials as food sources with health benefits.