Chemical Investigation of Seeds of Wild Plant ‘Citrullus colocynthis’ of Chhattisgarh State for Exploring Medicinal and Nutritional Potential

Citrullus colocynthis (Indrayan) is the plant which seems to grow well in sub-tropical climates and can stand brief frosts, is probably tolerant of some drought and has many medicinal properties. The proper scientific phytochemical investigation of seeds of Citrullus colocynthis was carried out for estimating and determining various Micronutrients contents, Fatty Acids and Amino Acids present in the seeds along with the proximate and ultimate analysis for determining various other concerned physicochemical properties of the seeds. More than 95% of organic matter contents in the seeds under examination indicated high nutritional quality of the seeds. Proteins were found to be 30.18% in the seeds of Citrullus colocynthis. The seeds under investigation were found to be rich in essential amino acids. All the essential amino acids, Leucin (15.0 g/100g protein), Phenyl alanine (5.1 g/100g protein), Lysine (4.0 g/100g protein), Isoleusine (7.7 g/100g protein), Threonine (2.2 g/100g protein), Methionine (1.9 g/100g protein), Valine (8.6 g/100g protein), Histidine (2.5 g/100g protein) were found to be present in the seeds of Citrullus colocynthis. Various non-essential amino acids viz. Aspartic Acid, Serine, Glutamic Acid, Glycine, Arginine, Alanine, Proline and Tyrosine were also found to be present in the seeds in varying amounts.