African Journal of Food Science and Technology ((ISSN: 2141-5455) Vol. 4(10) pp. 221-228, December, 2013 DOI: http:/dx.doi.org/10.14303/ajfst.2013.053 Available online @http://www.interesjournals.org/AJFST Copyright ©2013 International Research Journals Full Length Research Paper Evaluation of micronutrients in seeds of Pumpkin varieties grown by smallholder farmers in the Lake Victoria Basin *Echessa A.C. Peter 1 , Nyambaka Hudson 1 , Ondigi N. Alice 2 , Omuterema Stanley 3 , Toili William 3 , Afihini S. M. Ijani 4 and Sande Anne 5 1 Department of Chemistry, School of Pure and Applied Sciences, Kenyatta University P.O. Box 43844 00100 GPO NAIROBI, KENYA 2 Department of Hospitality and Tourism Management, Kenyatta University P.O. Box 43844 00100 GPO NAIROBI, KENYA 3 Department of Disaster Management and Humanitarian Assistance, Masinde Muliro University of Science and Technology. P.O. Box 190-50100 Kakamega, KENYA 4 Tropical Pesticides Institute, P.O. Box 3024 ARUSHA, TANZANIA 5 Community Development Department, Chuka University P.O. Box 109 Chuka, KENYA *Corresponding authors email: echessap@yahoo.com Abstract This study shows micronutrients malnutrition and its devastating effects taking toll of the world, affecting over two billion of its population. Measures have been put in place that includes supplementation, fortification and bio fortification among others. Utilization of indigenous crops are known to be nutritious and are acceptable among the communities mainly, developing countries favours the later method. The micronutrient levels in pumpkin seeds of six varieties, cultivated in four districts within the Lake Victoria Basin, East Africa were determined. This was with a view to establish if any significant differences existed between the varieties as well as set the background upon which the better varieties should be improved. The results showed levels of moisture (11.62-26.23 mg /100 g), β- carotene (0.02-0.42 mg /100 g), thiamine (0.19-0.54 mg /100 g), niacin (0.43-1.03 mg /100 g) and pyridoxine (0.13-0.26 mg /100 g), zinc (3.73-9.70 mg /100 g) and selenium (5.43-11.07 μg /100 g) significantly differed (p < 0.05). The varieties evaluated did not show significant differences in vitamin C, α-tocopherol and iron. The carnival squash (C. maxima) seeds, generally exhibited better levels of most micronutrients among the varieties sampled. Specifically however, bottle gourd (Lagenaria siceraria) samples showed higher levels of selenium, while butternut (C. moschata) seeds had high levels of zinc (9.70 mg /100 g) and green kabacha (Cucurbita pepo) the B complex vitamins. With sufficient nutritional education and purposefull improvement of the better varieties through breeding, pumpkin seeds can go along way as an alternative path for bio fortification as a method of fighting micronutrients malnutrition. Keywords: Pumpkin seeds, malnutrition, micronutrients, Lake Victoria basin, biofortification, pumpkin varieties, β-carotene, B complex vitamins. INTRODUCTION The major challenge to food security in Africa, is it’s under developed agricultural sector that is characterized by over reliance on primary agriculture, low fertility soils, minimal use of external farm inputs, environmental degradation, and significant food crops loss both pre and post harvest, inadequate food storage and preservation that result in significant commodity price fluctuation (Mwaniki, 2005). Ninety five percent of the food in sub- Saharan Africa is grown under rain fed agriculture (Inter- Academy Council, 2004). The food production is therefore vulnerable to adverse weather conditions. Food insecure populations are vulnerable to rampant cases of malnutrition. Micronutrients malnutrition affects approximately 2 billion people worldwide, with the