Abstract

O. Olaofe and E. I. Adeyeye*

The Chinese bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) seed flour was evaluated for physical dimensions/ properties, proximate composition, energy contributions by the proximate values, some anti-nutrients, fatty acids composition and the fatty acids levels in the flour sample. These proximate levels were high (g/100 g sample): crude fat, crude protein and total energy with calculated total fatty acids as 28.0 %. Proportion of total energy contributed by fat was 60.9 % and utilizable energy due to protein was 17.5 %. All the anti-nutrient values were low and percentage phosphorus due to phytic acid was just 0.84 %. The highest concentrated fatty acid was C18:2n-6 (67.7 %) and n-6/n-3 was 41.1. C18:2n-6 (67.7 %) was contained in 19.0 g of seed flour whereas C18: 3n-3 (1.65 %) was contained in 0.46 g of the seed flour.

Chinese bottle gourd seed flour characteristics; chemical composition

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