IJAGST International Journal of Agricultural Sciences and Technology 2710-3366 SvedbergOpen ijagst-1-1-003 10.51483/IJAGST.1.1.2021.15-23 Research Paper Determination of minerals, vitamin content and antioxidant activity of cucumber and watermelon fruits from South-Western part of Nigeria OmoniyiModupe A. 1 * AlliAduradara M. 2 1Department of Chemistry, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: omoniyimodupe@gmail.com 2Department of Chemistry, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria. E-mail: macomoniyi02@gmail.com *Corresponding author: Modupe A. Omoniyi, Department of Chemistry, University of Lagos, Lagos, Nigeria. E-mail: omoniyimodupe@gmail.com 02 2021 1 1 15 23 Abstract

Fruits are indispensable in today’s world owing their tremendous health benefits. Cucumber and watermelon are commonly consumed fruits worldwide. In this study, antioxidant potential of crude methanol extract of different concentrations of cucumber and watermelon were screened for antioxidant activity using total phenolic content, ferric reducing power (FRAP), ferric thiocyanate (FTC) tests and free radical scavenging (DPPH) assay. They are good source of calcium, magnesium and copper with appreciable amounts of vitamin C (143.360 ± 101.400 mg/100 g) for cucumber and vitamin A (90.980 ± 22.860 mg/100g; 29.475 ± 0.575 mg/100 g) for both watermelon and cucumber respectively. It was found I that polyphenolics compounds were maximum in watermelon (87.04 ± 0.55 mg/g GAE in concentration 100 mg/mL). The extracts showed a potent DPPH free radical scavenging activity; cucumber had maximum percentage inhibition at 20 μg/mL concentration (29.2%) compared to watermelon at 40 μg/mL concentration (13.5%). These fruits also exhibited fairly good antioxidant activity with in both FRAP (0.517 mg/100 g; 0.317 mg/100 g) and FTC (17.2%; 31%) methods for watermelon and cucumber respectively.

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