Skip to content
Research Article Open access CC BY 4.0

Evaluation of the Phytochemicals, Nutritional and Anti-nutritional Compositions of Fresh, Sprouted and Toasted Citrullus lanatus (Watermelon) Seed Extracts

Titilayo O. Bamidele, Haruna G. Sunday, Auta Mathew, Jesse Ombugadu, Abdullahi Maryam

Asian Journal of Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology · pp. 11–19 · Published 27 Mar 2021

10.9734/ajbgmb/2021/v7i330174

Abstract

The current study evaluated the Phytochemicals Nutritional and Anti-nutritional Compositions of Fresh, Sprouted and Toasted Citrullus lanatus (Watermelon) Seed extracts. The phytochemicals, proximate, amino acids, microminerals and antinutrients compositions were determined following standard laboratory procedures in autoanalizer machines. Data were analyzed using one-way ANOVA followed by LSD and Duncan test for levels of significance. Results revealed the presence of Tannins, Saponins, Flavonoids, Alkaloids, Cardiac glycosides, Terpenoids in the three samples but anthroquinones was absent in sprouted and toasted watermelon seeds. Saponins (2.15 ± 0.07 mg/100 g), Tannins (40.63 ± 0.13 mg/100 g) Cyanogenic glycosides (3.55 ± 0.35 mg/100 g). There was no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the concentrations of the phytochemicals in all the samples except for cyanogenic glycosides which was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the fresh sample. Percentage protein (24.87 ± 0.48) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the sprouted sample, ash (%) (2.63 ± 0.11) was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the sprouted, fibre (20.64 ± 0.23) and moisture (%) (2.88 ± 0.19) was significantly (P < 0.05) lower in the toasted and carbohydrates (%) (9.81 ± 1.27) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the sprouted. Results obtained for Amino acids and mineral analyses showed no significant (P > 0.05) difference in the three samples and Phytates (0.31 ± 0.01%) were significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the fresh sample while oxalates (0.85 ± 0.01%) was significantly (P < 0.05) higher in the sprouted sample. The fresh, sprouted and toasted watermelon seeds may possess nutritional and health benefit by the virtue of their richness in phytochmicals, microminerals and amino acids, however the safety of the fresh sample is not guaranteed due to its high concentration of anti-nutrients.

Amino acids bioactive compounds proximate analysis microminerals antinutrients

Cited by 4

Produção de shampoo antifúngico para tratamento da dermatite seborreica a partir das sementes de Citrullus lanatus (melancia)

Lucas Barros Cunha, Denise Frazão Castro, Davy Freitas Santos · Caderno Pedagógico · 2025

Showing 3 of 4 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.

Article metrics

Real usage data collected on this platform.

0

Page views

0

PDF downloads

0

Outbound clicks

4

Citations

Views by country

Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".

No views recorded yet.

Traffic sources

Referring site, by host.

No traffic recorded yet.

Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.