| dc.description.abstract | Pumpkin is a multi-purpose fruit and leafy vegetable with abundant nutritional value and economic potential as a
food and industrial crop. Cucurbita moschata is the most common, heat-tolerant, better thriver in tropical Africa, but
remains under-utilised. Food preservation prolongs consumption period, diet variety and income generation for
manufacturing companies. However, preservation is a central problem facing developing countries, with huge post-harvest
losses of perishable commodities. Food availability that decreases just a few months after harvest limits development of
high-value agri-business industries specializing in highly perishable products. Although processing and preservation
treatments lead to high convenience, the subsequent nutritional loss remains a challenge. There is need to find ways of
minimizing nutritional losses. Subsequently, the present study grew and subjected mature pumpkin fruits to three open
solar (OSD), oven electric (OED) and enhanced solar (ESD) drying methods in an incomplete randomized block design.
Dry fruit slices were milled and analysed for β-carotene, protein, zinc, iron, calcium, energy, and moisture contents. There
was a significant (P<0.05)difference in length of time taken to dry pumpkin fruit slices using the three methods. Oven
drying took shortest time of 7.25 hours to attain15.15% final moisture content (MC), while OSD took 9.5 hours to attain
14.91% MC, but these MC were above safe levels. Enhanced solar drying achieved safest 12.82% MC, but in a longer time
of 13.2 hours. A significant (P<0.05) difference resulted in β-carotene, protein and zinc contents of the four flours. There
was consistent increase ofβ-carotene and protein contents in dried flour compared to fresh fruit, while minerals and energy
slightly reduced (P>0.05). Oven dried flour had 74.84 μ/g, while fresh fruit had 16.6 μ/gβ-carotene. Protein ranged
from13.8% to 16.5% in dry flours compared to 2.6% in fresh fruit. Zinc, iron, calcium and energy decreased in dry flours
compared to fresh fruit, and ranged from:9 to 44 ppm zinc, 49.5to 94.5 ppm iron, 525 to 1,116.82ppm calcium, and 3.6 to
4.2 kcal/g energy. Drying generally increases certain nutrients in reduced bulk as it did β-carotene and protein, but also
reduces others as it did zinc, iron, calcium and energy through oxidation. There is need to invest in ESD as an effective
method of pumpkin fruit and nutrient integrity preservation, as well as post-harvest loss prevention. | en_US |
