1. STUDIES ON THE NUTRITIONAL AND QUALITY CHARACTERISTICS OF CUCUMIS SATIVUS VARIETIES
Keerthika.T1, Devaki.C.S2, Florence Suma2, Asna Urooj2
1Vikram Hospital, MYSORE,
2Department of Studies in Food Science and Nutrition, University of Mysore, MYSORE.
RESULTS
Abstract
Table 5: Percentage loss of water of Pranic control and Pranic varieties of Cucumber
Table 2: Moisture and Vitamin ‘C’ content of different varieties of Cucumber
The present study was carried out to evaluate the nutritional, functional and quality parameters of different varieties of locally available cucumbers and their shelf stability. Different varieties of fresh cucumbers, such as Holenarasipur, Dotted, Zucchini, Regular, English, Organic Zucchini, Organic Regular, Control Regular and Pranic healed cucumbers were studied for nutritional parameters: Moisture composition, vitamin C; functional parameters: total phenols, antioxidant activity, and quality parameters: pH, brix and titrable acidity. All the 9 varieties were evaluated for the above mentioned parameters in different parts of cucumber viz, whole vegetable, peel and pulp. When compared with the results it was found that zuccinni variety had highest amount of nutritional and functional components.
Temperature
Days
Refrigerated Storage (+4°C)
Room Temperature (18 to 33°C)
Control
Pranic 2
3.80b
1.60b
6.0a
4.48a 4
6.25a
4.23a
9.80a
8.07a 6
9.78a
8.47a
14.40a
11.65a 8
13.58a
12.42a
17.20a
13.90a 10
16.30a
14.68a
20.80a
17.48a 12
18.47a
16.38a
23.40a
19.50a 14
19.40a
17.40a
24.80a
20.85a 16
20.70a
18.60a
29.60a
22.42a 18
21.30a
32.0a
23.99a
Sl.no
Variety
Moisture (%)
Vitamin C
By oven drying
By analyser
(mg/100gm) 1.
Holenarasipur
i. Whole
96.23
96.1
ii. Peel
93.58
93.19
iii. Pulp
96.38
95.81
2.607 2.
English
Whole
95.5
94.98
95.68
95.26
95.86
95.49
2.86 3.
Zucchini
93.86
93.6
95.28
92.86
92.5
18.249 4.
Dotted
i.Whole
95.59
95.4
93.8
93.2
95.32
3.736 5.
Regular
96.54
95.98
94.99
94.54
96.47
95.67 6.
Control
96.22
96.15
96.3
96.5
4.686 7.
Pranic Healed
96.44
96.56
95.47
95.6
96.86
96.9
6.284 8.
Organic Regular
96.2
95.94
94.52
94.48
96.12 9.
Organic Zucchini
93.7
95.7
95.24
92.56
92.45
20.24
Introduction
Cucumber (Cucumis sativus L.) belongs to the Cucurbitaceae family, is a major vegetable crop worldwide.
Although its calorie and nutritional value is very low, it is a primary source of vitamins and minerals in the human diet
In addition to its delicious taste and fairly good caloric value, it has high medicinal value for human beings.
The cucumber fruit products are used not only for fresh eating and culinary cooking, but also for salad and pickling.
Though there are many varieties of cucumbers, evaluation of different varieties for their nutritional, functional, and quality parameters and, shelf stability is lacking.
# Values with superscripts are significant at the level a: p>0.0001, b: p>0.001, c: p>0.01, d: p>0.05
Table 6: Physical characteristics of varieties of Cucumber
Characteristics
Variety
Condition
Days of storage 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Shrivel
Control
Refrigerated 5 3 1
Room
Pranic
Colour
Materials and Methods
Good quality raw materials, cucumber (Cucumis sativus) – varieties like Holenarasipur, Dotted, Zucchini, Regular, English, Organic Zucchini, Organic Regular were procured from local market, Control Regular and Pranic healed cucumbers were procured from World Pranic Healing Foundation, Mysore.
All the chemicals, standards, organic solvents and acids used were of analytical grade.
Storage Stability studies of Raw Cucumber: Different varieties of cucumbers were stored in two different temperatures, Room temperature: 18 to 33°C (RT) and Refrigerated temperature: 4°C and evaluated for physiological loss in water and physical parameters like shrivel, colour, firmness and decay.
Along with the storage stability of the raw cucumbers, the different varieties were analysed for physical, nutritional, functional and quality parameters.
Table 3: Functional parameters of different varieties of Cucumber
Sl.No
Variety
Antioxidant activity %*
Total Polyphenols
mg GAE (100g)** 1
Holenarasipur
21.37 58 2
English
30.4 65 3
Zucchini
32.68 80 4
Dotted 62 5
Regular
22.28 60 6
Control
20.57 68 7
Pranic Healed 69 8
Organic Regular 9
Organic Zucchini
32.57
CONCLUSION
The present study brought out the results of nutritional parameters: moisture, vitamin C; functional- total phenols and antioxidants and quality parameters- pH, brix and acidity of different varieties of cucumbers.
Highest moisture content was seen in English, Zucchini and pranic healed cucumbers and the lowest moisture content was found in holenarasipur and dotted variety.
Zucchini had the highest vitamin C, antioxidant activity, total phenolics and °Brix when the pranic treated and control samples were studied for their storage stability, it was observed that pranic treated samples showed better stability at room temperature and refrigerated storage.
* DPPH Free radical scavenging activity for 1g of sample extract.
**GAE- Total phenols expressed as mg/100g Gallic Acid Equivalent
Characteristics
Variety
Condition
Days of storage 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18
Decay
Control
Refrigerated 5 1
Room
Pranic
Table 4: Quality parameters of different varieties of Cucumber
Variety pH
Concentration
Brix°
Titrable acidity (% lactic acid)
Holenarasipur
5.56
3.0
0.13
English
5.43
0.26
Zucchini
6.40
5.0
0.21
Dotted
5.50
3.8
0.14
Regular
0.15
Control
5.42
Pranic Healed
5.38
Organic Regular
5.58
Organic Zucchini
6.45
5.2
0.22
Table 1: Following methods were standardized for evaluating the Cucumber samples
Analysis
Evaluation
Proximate Composition-Moisture
Oven drying method , Moisture analyzer
Total phenols
Spectrophotometric method
Vitamin C
Titration method pH
pH meter
Acidity
Antioxidants
DPPH Method
TSS
Refractometer
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
The authors sincerely thank Mr. Srikanth Jois (Head of Reasearch), World Pranic Healing Research Foundation, Mysore for their financial support and encouragement. a c d e f g b
Different varieties of cucumber used for the study; a:Zucchini, b:Dotted,c: English, d: Regular, e: Holenarasipur, f: Pranic control, g: Pranic healed