Gurum Seeds: A Potential Source of Edible Oil

Abstract

Cucurbitaceae family seeds are mostly discarded as agro‐industrial wastes. Gurum (Citrullus lanatus var. colocynthoide) is an underutilized wild cucurbit plant, closely related to desert watermelon, which is grown abundantly in some African countries. Gurum seeds can play a significant role in health and nutrition due to their high oil content. This review describes the nutritional composition of gurum seeds and their oil profile. Gurum seeds are a good source of oil (27–35.5%), fiber (26–31%), crude protein (15–18%), and carbohydrates (14–17%). Gurum seeds oil is extracted by supercritical CO2 (SFE), screw press, and solvent extraction techniques. The gurum seeds oil is composed of unsaturated fatty acids with a high proportion of linoleic acid (C18:2) and oleic acid (C18:1). Gurum seeds oil contains various bioactive compounds, such as tocopherols, phytosterols, and polyphenols. It is reported that solvent extraction gives a higher yield than the screw press and SFE, but the SFE is preferred due to safety issues. More studies are required for producing better quality gurum seeds oil by using novel extraction techniques that can increase oil yield.

Micro‐encapsulation of gurum (Citrullus lanatus Var. Colocynthoide) seed oil maintains functional quality characteristics during accelerated storage

“…Table 1 illustrates the changes in the fatty acid profile of gurum seed oil (GSO) and microencapsulated gurum seed oil (MGSO) during 28 days of accelerated storage (60°C). Fresh GSO is rich in unsaturated fatty acids (82.13%), which is within the range of 80.2%–83.19% reported for unsaturated fatty acids of gurum seed oil extracted with different extraction methods (Karrar et al., 2021b). Linoleic acid (C18:2 ω–6, 61.96%) is the major fatty acid in GSO, followed by oleic (C18:1 ω–9, 19.23%), palmitic (C16:0, 8.90%) and stearic (C18:0, 8.86%) acids.…”

“…Linoleic acid (C18:2 ω-6, 61.96%) is the major fatty acid in GSO, followed by oleic (C18:1 ω-9, 19.23%), palmitic (C16:0, 8.90%) and stearic (C18:0, 8.86%) acids. Similarly, previous reports indicated that linoleic acid is the major fatty acid, followed by oleic and palmitic in different seed oils (Zhang et al, 2020;Karrar et al, 2021b). Despite the high health quality of unsaturated fatty acids containing oil, such oils are unstable and rapidly oxidised during storage, which limits their utilisation in food and pharmaceutical applications (Aslan et al, 2021;Karrar et al, 2021a).…”