Cucurbit Genetics Cooperative Report 7:46-48 (article 21) 1984

Association of Fruit Quality with Seed Characters and Oil and Protein Content of Muskmelon Seeds

T. A. More and V. S. Seshadri

Division of Vegetable Crops, Indian Agricultural Research Institute, New Delhi 110012, India

Seeds of certain cucurbits are well known sources of oil and protein, although none have been used commercially (1). Madaan et al. (3) reported that muskmelon seeds are a potential source of edible oil. Our objective was to assess the variability of seed oil and protein content, in relation to seed and kernel weight, and total soluble solids (TSS) in muskmelon.

Oil and protein content of 78 collections from 10 countries were expressed as a percent of seed weight and kernel percentage. Oil content was estimated by the cold percolation method of Kartha and Sethi (2). Nitrogen content was determined by the micro- Kjeldhal method, and was expressed as total protein (N x 6.25). Kernel percentage was expressed as a percent of seed weight. Table 1 summarizes the data for each country.

Table 1. Average oil and protein content (% of seed weight), 100- seed weight (g), kernel percentage (of seed weight), and total soluble solids (%) of 78 muskmelons from 10 countries.
Country		Number of collections	Oil	Protein	Seed weight	Kernel percentage	Total soluble solids
Japan		7	26.8	15.5	1.3	54.1	7.0
Hungary		1	21.4	14.5	2.5	45.0	6.9
Israel		2	26.5	16.6	2.9	54.0	-
Bulgaria		1	30.5	19.0	4.0	60.8	9.2
France		3	27.7	15.9	2.4	56.5	6.5
USSR		7	28.4	18.5	2.7	58.9	5.7
USA and Australia	Cantaloupes	15	26.7	15.9	2.4	54.2	7.6
	Honey Dew	1	25.3	16.3	2.4	55.4	7.4
Pakistan		1	34.2	17.9	1.8	65.3	9.5
India	Dessert	31	31.2	16.7	3.2	62.6	8.4
	Non-dessert	9	24.1	14.8	1.5	48.1	4.7
SE (D) +/-			1.90	0.99	0.36	3.64	1.40

Highest oil content was in a collection from Pakistan. Highest protein content was in the Bulgarian collection. Seed weight of the Bulgarian collection was the heaviest, but the collection from Pakistan had the highest kernel percentage. Highest TSS was in the collection from Pakistan.

Non-dessert types of India were lower in oil and protein content, seed weight and kernel percentage, compared to the dessert types. There was not much difference between cantaloupes of USA and Australia, and noncantaloup dessert types of India, for oil and protein content. In that context, our results indicate that dessert types with higher TSS content were superior in seed characteristics.

Most of the correlations among oil and protein content, 100-seed weight, kernel percentage, and TSS were positive and significant (Table 2). The correlations of oil content with kernel percentage and protein with seed weight and kernel percentage were especially high.

 

Table 2. Correlation coefficients (r) for oil and protein content (% of seed weight), 100-seed weight (g), kernel percentage, and total soluble solids of 78 muskmelons from 10 countries.z
	Protein	Seed weight	Kernel percentage	Total soluble solids
Oil	0.52**	0.44**	0.78**	0.36**
Protein		0.89**	0.71**	0.54**
Seed weight			0.49**	0.42**
Kernel percentage				0.45**
zSignificant at 0.01 (**) levels.

These results suggest that oil and protein content could be improved by selection for high 100-seed weight and high kernel percentage. These data also suggest that selection for dessert qualities resulted in simultaneous improvement in oil and protein content through higher seed weight and kernel percentage.

Literature Cited

1. Girgis, P. and F. Said. 1968. Lesser known Nigerian edible oils and fats. I. Characteristics of melon seed oil. J. Sci. Food Agric. 19:615-616.
2. Kartha, A.R.S. and A.S. Sethi. 1957. Cold percolation method for rapid gravimetric estimation of oil in small quantities of oil seeds. Indian J. Agric. Sci. 27:211-217.
3. Madaan, T.R., T.A. More, B.M. Lal and V.S. Seshadri. 1982. A study of seeds of muskmelon (Cucumis melo L.) a lesser known source of edible oil. J. Sci. Food Agric. 33:973-978.