Abstract

In Sudan, the unripe (green) fruits of Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt. (Cucurbitaceae) are eaten raw as salads or cooked by either boiling or frying in oil. In this study the amino acid content, fatty acid profile and radical scavenging capacities of the raw and boiled fruits were determined. The total amino acids ranged from 7736 mg/100 g in raw fruits to 7766 mg/100 g in boiled fruits and with the exception of leucine, boiling did not cause significant difference in the essential amino acids content (32.5%) of the fruits. Boiling caused significant (p<0.05) change in the amount of the total saturated (from 38.04% in raw fruits to 14.156% in boiled ones) and unsaturated fatty acids (from 57.59% in raw fruits to 85.774% in boiled ones). Moreover, boiling caused significant (p<0.05) losses of vitamin C by 73% and polyphenols by 70.6 % contents. The high antioxidant activity of the raw fruits (IC50 22 mg/L), determined by DPPH and ABTS assays, was declined dramatically upon boiling. In conclusion, the results of this study suggested that fruits of C. grandis could have health beneficial effect and their consumption in the raw state is preferable.

Keywords:

Antioxidant activity, Coccinia grandis, essential amino acids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, total phenolics, vitamin C,

References

1. AOAC, 1995. Official methods of analysis of AOAC International. AOAC International, USA, pp: 16-17.
   
2. Bahorun, T., A. Luximon-Ramma, A. Crozier and I.O. Aruoma, 2004. Total phenol, flavonoid, proanthocyanidin and vitamin C levels and antioxidant activities of Mauritian vegetables. J. Sci. Food Agr., 84: 1553-1561.
   CrossRef    
3. Bhat, R. and A.A. Karim, 2009. Exploring the nutritional potential of wild and underutilized legumes. Compr. Rev. Food Sci. F., 8: 305-331.
   CrossRef    
4. Bussmann, R.W., G.G. Gilbreath, J. Solio, M. Lutura, R. Lutuluo, K. Kunguru, N. Wood and S.G. Mathenge, 2006. Plant use of the Maasai of Sekenani Valley, Maasai Mara Kenya. J. Ethnobiol. Ethnomed., 2: 22.
   CrossRef    PMid:16674830 PMCid:PMC1475560    
5. Cao, G., E. Sofic and R.L. Prior, 1996. Antioxidant capacity of tea and common vegetables. J. Agr. Food Chem., 44: 3426-3431.
   CrossRef    
6. Cohen, J.H., A.R. Kristal and J.L. Stanford, 2000. Fruit and vegetable intakes and prostate cancer risk. J. Natl. Cancer I., 92: 61-68.
   CrossRef    PMid:10620635    
7. Cook, J., D. VanderJagt, A. Pastuszyn, G. Mounkaila, R.S. Glew, M. Milison and R.H. Glew, 2000. Nutrient and chemical composition of 13 wild edible plant foods of Niger. J. Food Compos. Anal., 13: 83-92.
   CrossRef    
8. Fennema, O., 1997. Loss of vitamins in fresh and frozen foods. Food Technol., 31: 32-38.
   
9. Getachew, A.G., Z. Asfaw, V. Singh, Z. Woldu, J.J. Baidu-Forson and S. Bhattacharya, 2013. Dietary values of wild and semi-wild edible plants in southern Ethiopia. Afr. J. Food Agric. Nutr. Dev., 13: 7485-7503.
   
10. Grivetti, L.E. and B.M. Ogle, 2000. Value of traditional foods in meeting macro-and micronutrient needs: The wild plant connection. Nutr. Res. Rev., 13: 31-46.
    CrossRef    PMid:19087432    
11. Hunter, K.J. and J.M. Fletcher, 2002. The antioxidant activity and composition of fresh, frozen, jarred and canned vegetables. Innov. Food Sci. Emerg., 3: 399-406.
    CrossRef    Direct Link
12. Ismail, A., Z.M. Marjan and C.W. Foong, 2004. Total antioxidant activity and phenolic content in selected vegetables. Food Chem., 87: 581-586.
    CrossRef    
13. Khachik, F., M.B. Goli, G.R. Beecher, J. Holden, W.R. Lusby, M.D. Tenorio and M. Barrera, 1992. Effect of food preparation on qualitative and quantitative distribution of major carotenoid constituents of tomatoes and several green vegetables. J. Agr. Food Chem., 40: 390-398.
    CrossRef    Direct Link
14. Knekt, P., J. Kumpulainen, R. Jarvinen, H. Rissanen, M. Heliovaara, A., Reunanen, T. Halulinen and A. Aromaa, 2002. Flavonoids intake and risk of chronic diseases. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 76: 560-568.
    CrossRef    PMid:12198000    
15. Liu, S., J.E. Manson, I.M. Lee, S.R. Cole, C.H. Hennekens, W.C. Willett and J. Burning, 2000. Fruit and vegetable intake and risk of cardiovascular disease: The women's health study. Am. J. Clin. Nutr., 72: 922-928.
    CrossRef    PMid:11010932    
16. Medley, K.E. and H.W. Kalibo, 2007. Ethnobotanical survey of 'wild' woody plant resources at mount Kasigau, Kenya. J. E. Afr. Nat. Hist., 96(2): 149-186.
    CrossRef    
17. Mensor, L.I., F.S. Menezes, G.G. Leitao, A.S. Reis, D.O.S. Santos and S.G. Leitao, 2001. Screening of Brazilian plants extracts for an antioxidant activity by the use o DPPH free radical method. Phytother. Res., 15: 127-130.
    CrossRef    PMid:11268111    
18. Moore, S. and W.H. Stein, 1963. Methods in Enzymology. Vol. 6, Academic Press, New York.
    PMCid:PMC1423286    
19. Muniappan, R.G., V.P. Reddy and A. Raman, 2009. Coccinia grandis (L.) Voigt (Cucurbitaceae).
    
20. Price, K.R., F. Casuscelli, I.J. Colquhoun and J.C. Rhodes, 1998. Composition and content of flavonol glycosides in broccoli florets (Brassica olearacea) and their fate during cooking. J. Sci. Food Agr., 77: 468-472.
    CrossRef    
21. Rawson, A., M.B. Hossain, A. Patras, M. Tuohy and N. Brunton, 2013. Effect of boiling and roasting on the polyacetylene and polyphenol content of fennel (Foeniculum vulgare) bulb. Food Res. Int., 50: 513-518.
    CrossRef    
22. Re, R., N. Pellegrini, A. Proteggente, A. Pannala, M. Yang and C. Rice-Evans, 1999. Antioxidant activity applying an improved ABTS radical cation decolorization assay. Free Radical Bio. Med., 26: 1231-1237.
    CrossRef    
23. Shajeela, P.S., P.S. Tresina and V.R. Mohan, 2013. Fatty acid composition of wild yam (Dioscorea spp.). Trop. Subtrop. Agroecosyst., 16: 35-38.
    
24. Sukhwant, M.K., K. Harvinder and G. Tejinder, 1992. Effect of cooking on fibre content of vegetables. J. Food Sci. Technol., 29: 185-186.
    
25. VanderJagt, D., C. Freiberger, H. Vu, G. Mounkaila, R.S. Glew and R.H. Glew, 2000. The trypsin inhibitor content of 61 wild edible plant foods of Niger. Plant Food Hum. Nutr., 55: 335-46.
    CrossRef    PMid:11086876    
26. Wolfe, K., X. Wu and K.H. Liu, 2003. Antioxidant activity of apple peels. J. Agr. Food Chem., 15: 609-614.
    CrossRef    PMid:12537430    
27. Xu, B.J. and S.K. Chang, 2008. Total phenolic content and antioxidant properties of eclipse black beans. J. Food Sci., 73: H19-H27.
    CrossRef    PMid:18298732    
28. Zhang, D. and Y. Hamauzu, 2004. Phenolics, ascorbic acid, carotenoids and antioxidant activity of broccoli and their changes during conventional and microwave cooking. Food Chem., 88: 503-509.
    CrossRef    

Competing interests

The authors have no competing interests.

Open Access Policy

This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made.

Copyright

The authors have no competing interests.