Physiochemical properties and fatty acids compositions of three species of cucurbitaceae

Abstract

Increasing world population which directly increases the demand and consumption of vegetable oil puts pressure on soybean, groundnut, and other leading plant crops used in the production of vegetable oil in the world. On this bases the seed of Cucumeropsis manni, Trianchosanthes angunia and Cucumis sativa were analyzed to establish their physicochemical and fatty acids properties using standard procedures of Association of Official Analytical Chemists (AOAC) and GC-MS respectively. The specific gravity values showed no significant differences among the species. Meanwhile, there were significant differences in peroxide value, acidic, saponification, free fatty acid pH and viscosity and iodine values. The seed oil of the three species contained high level of unsaturated fatty acid (linoiec acid) with the value of 43.55%, 65.41%, 53.62% for C. sativa, T. anguina and C. manni respectively. Oleic acid was found in C. manni. The results of the physicochemical and fatty acids of the three Cucurbitaceae have proved their great importance in nutrition and therefore, will reduce the pressure on well-known oil producing plants