Vol.:(0123456789) 1 3 Journal of Food Measurement and Characterization https://doi.org/10.1007/s11694-019-00155-y ORIGINAL PAPER Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. Colocynthoide) seed: lipid, amino acid, mineral, proximate, volatile compound, sugar, vitamin composition and functional properties Emad Karrar 1,2  · Sujitraj Sheth 3  · Wei Wei 1  · Xingguo Wang 1 Received: 19 January 2019 / Accepted: 2 May 2019 © Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, part of Springer Nature 2019 Abstract Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. Colocynthoide) seed was evaluated for lipid, amino acid, mineral, proximate, sugar, vitamin composition, volatile compound and functional characteristics in seeking to identify nutritious plant containing a higher amount of nutrients that can be employed in food related industries. The gurum seed was found to be rich in fat (33.05%), crude fber (26.42%), protein (18.55%), carbohydrates (14.41%), and ash (3.40%) and it has sufcient amino acids content. The gurum seed was found to have a higher content of minerals with potassium 2116.83 mg/100 g among highest followed by sodium 461.23 mg/100 g and magnesium 405.63 mg/100 g. Calcium, zinc, iron, copper and manganese are also present in a signif- cant amount. Gurum seeds could be used as an afuent source of vitamins, mainly B6 and B9 with the amounts of 11.37 and 9.24 mg/100 g respectively, while sucrose constituted 41.5% of the all sugars. Oil of gurum seed has an altitude amount of unsaturated fatty acids, with C18:2 and C18:1 as the major acids, whereas, triglycerides as a major component of lipid classes. The gurum seed showed water absorption 3.46 mL /g and oil absorption 2.39 mL/g. The foaming capacity, stability of foam and emulsifying capacity were 18.5%, 16.55%, and 44.2%, respectively. 49 volatile compounds from the extract of gurum seeds were identifed; with organic acids as a prime component. This study has shown the potentials of gurum seed, a by-product with a high nutritional value to provide sufcient economic resourceful raw material alternative to food industrial frms. Keywords Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. Colocynthoide) seeds · Nutritional quality · Fat composition · Functional properties · Volatile compounds Introduction Recently, more concern has been given on the exploitation of by-products generated as waste from food processing and agriculture products.The problem of industrial and agri- cultural waste have become more and more prominent and strong eforts will be needed to develop the nutritional and industrial potential of by-products which are not popularly utilized [1, 2]. This could, in turn, assist to minimize the increasing problem of waste disposal in the near future. By creating new and variety of food options it will widen human horizons for available resources of food. In general, only small parts of plant material is used by human for its daily consumption while remaining part of them are dis- carded as waste thus, its proper utilization can create signif- cant contribution to produce industrial products or as food resources [2, 3]. Still, many seeds of plants are regarded as by-products or waste but currently attracting more atten- tion as a new source of food [4], because it had enormous nutritional and natural antioxidants. Seeds contain impor- tant nutrients such as fatty acids, amino acids, minerals, vitamins, bioactive compounds, proteins, oils, and carbohy- drates thus provide additional benefts alongside energy [4]. The oil could be extracted from fruit seeds which contain several essential nutrients and natural antioxidants or may * Emad Karrar emadkarrar26@yahoo.com * Xingguo Wang wxg1002@qq.com 1 State Key Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, Jiangsu, China 2 Department of Food Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, University of Gezira, Wad Medani, Sudan 3 Key Laboratory of Synthetic and Biological Colloids, Ministry of Education, School of Chemical and Material Engineering, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China