Evaluation of Egusi Melon (Colocythis citrullus) Accessions in NigeriaUsing Proximate and Fatty Acid Analysis

Colocynthis citrullus is a species of melon, popularly called ‘Egusi’ in West Africa. It belongs to a large family called Curcubitaceae, which consist of 119 genera and about 925 species. In order to assess variations in nutritional value of Egusi Melon (Colocynthis citrullus) seeds, proximate and fatty acid composition of eight accessions of the crop were carried out. The accessions were selected from collections of family curcubitaceae made across Nigeria. The analyses of shelled Melon seeds were done using the standard Method of Association of Analytical Chemists. The data collected from the proximate and fatty acid constituents were used for Analysis of variance and Duncan multiple range test (DMRT) was used to separate the means. The results of the proximate and fatty acid composition showed significant differences (p < 0.05) among the different melon accessions. Accession NGR-NG-02 had highest value of ash (8.71%), crude fibre (6.43) and crude protein (35.37%) contents. The highest stearic (10.03%) and oleic (18.49%) values were recorded for NGR-NG-02 and NGR-NG-20 respectively. While the highest palmitic (61.33%) and linoleic (65.84%) values were recorded for NGR-NG-29. The high significant variation observed among the accessions could be an indication of high genetic diversity among Nigerian Egusi melon.