Nutritional Profile and Antioxidant Activity of Momordica tuberosa

Chemical, fatty acid, amino acid composition and antioxidant activity of dehydrated Momordica tuberosa Roxb. (Adavi Kakara ) was investigated. The dehydrated M. tuberosa  possessed 21.76% protein and 33.96% fibre. The total lipid of seed was rich in oleic (22.05%), linoleic (25.09%) and linolenic (6.17%) acids. Major amino acids of the seeds are glutamic acid, arginine, leucine, aspartic acid and alanine. The ratio of essential to nonessential amino acids was 0.57 and in which, essential amino acids contributed to an extent of  36.36 g/100 g seed proteins. Inhibition of 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) free radical at 50% was higher with pulp (6 mg) than whole fruit (14 mg) and seeds (20 mg). The ABTS radical inhibition assay was found to be high in whole fruit (98.4%) and followed by pulp (50.76%) and seed (16.14%) at 2 mg. Marginal differences in ferric ion reducing power were observed in all the samples at 10 mg level.