Nutritional composition and oil fatty acids of Indian winter melon Benincasa hispida (Thunb.) seeds

Winter melon (Benincasa hispida), locally known as Petha, is a vegetable crop with high functional properties (especially in medicinal treatment), were analyzed for nutritive parameters (dietary fiber, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, and ash) and oil fatty acids composition. Proximate analysis showed that the winter melon seeds have crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber and ash content of 16.57%, 34.12%, 21.53% and 2.7% respectively. The extracted winter melon seed oil mainly consisted of linoleic acid (C18:2 ω-6), accounting for 80.07% of the total fatty acids. Other important fatty acid detected were palmitic (C16:0), oleic (C18:1) and stearic (C18:0) acids with contribution of 11.71%, 4.10% and 3.74% respectively. The fatty acids profile of the tested winter melon seed oil was quite comparable to those of previously reported cucurbitaceae seed oils and some other wholesome oils, revealing that it can be used as a potential seed oil crop.