PROXIMAE CHEMICAL COMPOSITION OF WATERMELON (Citrullus vulgaris)
SALWA ELAMIN IBRAHIM
Department of Home Economic, College of Home Economic, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA
ABDEL MONEIM ELHADI SULIEMAN
*
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
ELMUTAZ NASIR HASSAN
Commission for Biotechnology and Genetic Engineering, National Centre for Research, Khartoum, Sudan
NAHID A. ALI
Department of Home Economic, College of Home Economic, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA
BOTHAINA S. ABD EL HAKEEM
Department of Home Economic, College of Home Economic, King Khalid University, Abha, KSA
ABDEL MUHSIN ABDEGADIR ABDEL MUHSIN
Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, University of Hail, Hail, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
The proximate chemical composition of watermelon (Citrullus vulgaris) was investigated. In addition, dicarboxylic fatty acids were determined using Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry. Results showed that the content of moisture, ash, crude protein, crude fibre, ash, lipids and carbohydrate contents ranged between 91.65-6.75%, 25.60-7.54%, 4.64- 3.45%, 1.30-1.10%, 25.12-1.42% and 3.11-2.54%, in stems, leaves, green crust, kernels and seeds, respectively. Watermelon plant parts contained variable amounts of macro-minerals potassium (K), Calcium (Ca) and Magnesium (Mg) which ranged between 70.9 -421.5 µg/ml, 2.46-343.1 µg/ml and 11.9-72.1 µg/ml in stems, leaves, green crust, kernels and seeds, respectively. Moreover, watermelon plant parts contained relatively small amounts of micro-minerals: copper, Cobalt, manganese, lead, Zinc and iron which ranged between -<0.1-9.69 µg/ml. The fatty acid analysis indicated that watermelon contain five saturated fatty acids; tetrdecanoic acid, pentadecanoic acid, hexadecanoic acid, heptadecanoic acid and octadecanoic acid with different concentrations. The watermelon plant also contained four unsaturated fatty acids. The the most abundant fatty acids were Hexanoic and Eicosanoic acids (15%) while the lowest detected fatty acid was Octadecanoic acid (9%).
Keywords: Gas chromatography/mass spectrometry, soxhlet apparatus, inorganic nutrients, fatty acids crude fibre, ash