Abstract

VARIATION IN PHYTOCHEMICAL ATTRIBUTES AT RIPENING STAGES OF ‘WATERMELON’ CITRULLUS LANATUS (THUNB.) FRUIT PULP FROM DIFFERENT GEOGRAPHICAL REGIONS

Dr. Madhuri Daharia*, Dr. Jyoti Markam, Dr. Lalchand, Dr. O. P. Rout and Dr. P. K. Joshi

ABSTRACT

Watermelon Citrullus lanatus (Thunb.) is vine – like (scrambler and trailer) flowering plant originally from southern Africa. It is also found in India its fruit, which is known as a Watermelon is a special kind of fruit known by botanists as a pepo a berry which has a thick rind (exocarp) and fleshy centre (mesocarp and endocarp ). “Watermelon” Citrullus lanatus (thunb.) Matsum. and Nakai belongs to family Cucurbitaceae. As per the review of literature the extract from “Kalinda” Cittrulus lanatus (Thunb.) exhibited good Antioxidant activity as well as free radical scavenging capacity. As far as we know there is no comprehensive data reported on the variation of Phytochemical during ripening of fruit from different Geographical Regions. Therefore the present research study variation in Phytochemical attributes at ripening stages of “Kalinda” Cittrulus lanatus (Thunb.) fruit pulp from different Geographical Regions i.e. of Chhattisgarh (Mahasamund) Mahanadi river region, Uttar Pradesh (Agra) Yamuna river region and Odisha (Kendrapara) Gobari river region.

Keywords: Watermelon, citrullus lanatus (Thunb), Kalind.