International Journal of Environment, Agriculture and Biotechnology Vol-6, Issue-3; May-Jun, 2021 Journal Home Page Available: https://ijeab.com/ Journal DOI: 10.22161/ijeab Article Peer-Reviewed Journal ISSN: 2456-1878 https://dx.doi.org/10.22161/ijeab.63.14 132 Adding Functional Foods to Fermented Snake Melon (Cucumis melo var. flexuosus) to Increase Consumption and Reduce Crop Loss Lynn Sleiman 1 , Ali Alkhatib 1 , Sami Tlais 2 , Hassan Hajj Hussein 2* 1 Department of Nutrition and Food Science, Lebanese International University, Lebanon 2 Department of Biological and Chemical Sciences, Lebanese International University, Lebanon *Corresponding author. Email address: hassan.hajjhussein@liu.edu.lb Received: 11 Apr 2021; Received in revised form: 04 May 2021; Accepted: 28 May 2021; Available online: 13 Jun 2021 ©2021 The Author(s). Published by Infogain Publication. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). Abstract—Snake melon (Cucumis melo var. flexuosus) is a member of the melon family. It is a seasonal fruit that is high in water and low in calories, fat, and cholesterol. It is a high-yielding crop that has a short shelf- life, which results in the loss of a high percentage of the annual yield. In order to reduce the percentage of lost crop, we proposed several new recipes for making pickled snake melon by adding functional foods to enhance the flavor and nutritional values of the pickled snake melon product while evaluating consumer acceptance using sensory evaluation. The different samples of snake melon pickles were analyzed for their sensory attributes (color, odor, texture, taste, saltiness, sourness, and overall acceptability) using a Likert scale ranging from 1 “least liked” to 5 “most liked”. While none of the tested recipes were preferred over the control, four of the new recipes were similar to the control in overall acceptability indicating a clear potential for incorporating functional foods to increase diversification of snake melon pickles and in essence increase the potential for snake melon consumption while reducing crop loss. Keywords—Snake melon, Armenian cucumber, Mekte, Cucumis melo, functional foods. I. INTRODUCTION The snake or Armenian cucumber (Cucumis melo var. flexuosus), also known as snake melon, is a member of the melon family [1]. It is a type of long, curved, slender fruit which resembles and tastes like cucumber. It is known as Fakous in North Africa and some Arabic countries, Alficoz in Spain, Tortarello, Citrangolo, or Cucummaru in Italy, Hiti in Turkey, Tirozi in Kurdistan, Uri in Japan, and Mekte in Lebanon and Syria [2]. It originated in the Mediterranean basin, North Africa, Middle East, and Anatolia [3]. It is grown in house gardens as well as large scale farms [4]. Snake melon is an ancient crop that flourishes in sunny and warm climates [4]. It is characterized by a variety of external colors, which can be light green, dark green, or a mixture of both [2]. Other differences can be detected by the presence or absence of pubescence on the skin and by the longitudinal ribbing on the fruits, which ranges from very shallow to very deep [2]. It is used in the same applications as cucumber and therefore is considered an alternative to cucumber in many parts of the world [3]. Snake melon seeds contain 15.57% protein, 16.19% carbohydrate, and 5.69% ash. It is a good source of oil since the seed is composed of 22.33% oil. Snake melon seed oil is characterized by its odor, good color, good appearance, and good physicochemical properties [5]. Snake melon is characterized by a high yield and a short shelf-life [3]. According to the Biotechnology Research Institute of the Iranian Ministry of Agriculture, more than 17 % of the 106 million tons of snake melon produced in Iran became unusable in different stages from production to supply, and 7% perished in stores due to inappropriate packaging and unsuitable storage methods [1].