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Abstract

The dehulled seeds of three varieties of Lagenaria siceraria were subjected to control fermentation process. The fermented and unfermented seeds were analysed for their nutritional and anti-nutritional compositions using AOAC 1998. The fermented seeds were found to contain high amount of crude protein (48.12%) and crude fibre (4.11%) compared to 27.42% and 0.67% for unfermented seeds respectively. Similarly, crude lipid content of the seeds decreased by about 75%. The process also results in decrease in phytate, oxalate, tannins and cyanide content with consequent increase in nitrate and Vitamin C. Hence fermenting the seeds is an important way of exposing its protein content and reducing the antinutritional content. The seeds were found to have good potentials for preparation of condiments which are commonly used in the preparation of soup.