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AGRICULTURE AND BIOLOGY JOURNAL OF NORTH AMERICAISSN Print:
2151-7517, ISSN Online: 2151-7525,
doi:10.5251/abjna.2010.1.6.1299.1302
2010, ScienceHu, http://www.scihub.org/ABJNAEffect of drying on
selected proximate composition of fresh and
processed fruits and seeds of two pumpkin species
1,3,4Fedha, M.S., 1Mwasaru, M.A., 1Njoroge, C. K, 1Ojijo, N. O
and 2,3Ouma, G. O.
1Department of Food Science And Technology,JomoKenyatta
University Of Agricultut o cdTechnology,P.O BOX
62000,Nairobi,Kenya
2Associate Professor Of Hoticultut ,Sc hool Of Agricultut ,Food
Security andBiodiversity,Bondo University College,P.O Box 210-40601
Bondo,Kenya
3Corresponding
authors:[email protected],[email protected]
address:Ministry Of Agricultute,Kisumu West District,P.O Box
Paw-
Akuche,Kisumu,KenyaABSTRACT
Studies were conducted at Jomo Kenyatta University of
Agriculture and Technology, Kenya toinvestigate the effect of
drying on the proximate composition of crude fibre, crude fat
andcarbohydrates of two species of pumpkins namely, C. moschataand
C. maximain the year 2006.the treatments comprised fruits with rind
and those without rind (fruit pulp), whole seeds and seedkernels,
and raw and dry samples (flour). The experimental design was
completely randomizedand data analysis was by Genstat package.
Proximate composition of raw C. moschatafruit withrind was 87.9%
moisture (fresh weight), 4.9g/100g crude protein and 6.7g/100g
crude ash. Thecorresponding values of C. maxima were 87.0/100g,
3.9g/100g and 6.9g/100g on dry weightbasis. C. moschatawith rind
contained significantly (P
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Agric. Biol. J. N. Am., 2010, 1(6): 1299-1302
to investigate the various utilization options. Thepresent study
investigated the effect of drying on theproximate composition of
two species of pumpkinnamely: C. maximaand C. moschata
MATERIALS AND METHODS
The research involved dehydrating two species ofpumpkin (C.
moschataand C. maxima) and grindingthem into flour for proximate
analysis. Thetreatments involved fresh and dry samples, fruit
withrind and without rind (pulp), whole seeds and seedkernels. For
each treatment, three pumpkins wereanalyzed in duplicate. A
completely randomizeddesign (CRD) was employed in the study.
Thepumpkins were sourced from farmers in MachakosDistrict, Kenya.
Selection of the pumpkin fruitsamples was based on maturity. Fully
ripe pumpkinswere used in the study. They were stored at
atemperature of 10
oC before analysis.
Moisture content was determined by AOAC method930.04; (AOAC,
1995) total ash by AOCC method930.05 and crude protein (N% x 0.25)
BY AOACmethod 978.04 (AACC 1995).
To make flour from pumpkin fruit, fresh maturepumpkins of C.
moschata and C. maxima specieswere cleaned, peeled (some fruits
were not peeled),seeds removed and chopped into pieces of 2.5cm
inlength and 0.31cm thick using a motorized electricchipper (model
skymsen PA-TC, Brazil). Differentknown weights of slices were
subjected to blanchingbefore drying.
Drying was done using an electric drier (KIDRI EDSC Division,
Nairobi) to a moisture content of10%.This was achieved by drying at
a temperature of49
0C
for 4 hours. Dried fruits were then ground into
flour using a fine mill (Model Bauermeister, Hamburg,Attona,
Germany) after which flour samples weresubjected to proximate
analysis.
Flour from seed kernels was obtained by the methoddescribed by
El-Adawy and Tara (2001). Pumpkinswere cut by a sharp knife and the
seeds handcollected and washed with water then oven dried at60
oC for 12 hours using an Isuzu hot air rapid drying
oven (Soyokaze type ASF 113S). The dried seedswere shelled to
remove the kernels, which wereground to pass through a 60 mesh
(British StandardScreen). The fine flour of the whole seeds and
seedkernels were put in an air tight jar and kept in arefrigerator
(10
oC) until analysis.
Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was done using theGenstat Discovery
5
thedition (Roger et al 2001) at a
5% significance level.
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Proximate composition of fresh and processedpumpkin fruits and
seeds
Moisture content of fruits and seeds: The moisturecontent of
fruits and seeds in the present study isshown in Table 1. The
results showed that therewere significant (P < 0.05) differences
betweenmoisture content of fruits with rind and those withoutrind
for both species. The latter were found to containless moisture.
Table 1also presents the moisturecontents of seeds and seed kernels
of pumpkins. Aone way analysis of variance showed that there wereno
significant (P< 0.05) difference between moisturelevels of sun
dried seeds and seed kernels for the C.
moschataspecies and the inverse was true for the
C.maximaspecies.
These values for dry seeds are similar to thoseobtained by
Kershaw and Hackett, (1987) for otheredible oil seeds such as
cotton seeds (6.46%),peanuts (4.58%), palm kernel (5.31%),
sesame(4.60%) and sunflower seeds (6.58%). They arelower than those
of soybean (11.07%) and coconutseeds, (14.3%) (FAO, 1982). The low
levels ofmoisture of pumpkin seeds enable them to bepreserved for
long periods
Table 1: Moisture content of fruit vegetables and seeds
of two pumpkin species(% d.w)
Treatment C. moschata C. maxima
Fruit with rind 87.90.0d
87.10.2e
Fruit without rind 89.5 0.3e
88.20.4f
Whole seed ( fresh) 33.20.4c
34.10.1d
Seed kernel ( fresh) 28.50.9b
30.90.1c
Whole seed (sun dried) 5.70.4a
6.10.1b
Seed kernel (sun dried) 5.60.0a
5.50.2a
L.S.D. (P
