Nutritional Properties of Some Agricultural Seed Byproducts

Different agricultural seeds: apple, citrus, lufa, maple and pumpkin have been investigated for their nutritional potentials as food and feed components. The protein and fat content on a dry basis of the different seeds ranged from 16–43% and 19–50%, respectively. Food energy values averaged 22 Kj/g (526 KCal/100 g). Calcium and phosphorus were in the range of 0.06–0.48 and 0.25–1.05%, respectively. The fatty acid composition showed that 18:1 and 18:2 was the major component at concentrations of 40.1, 25.9, 24.3, 37.9 and 21.8 and 45.8, 30.7, 43.7, 39.7 and 58.5, respectively, for apple, citrus, lufa, maple and pumpkin. Amino acid profiles of the seeds indicated that the seed contains all the essential amino acids in a proper balance with apple and pumpkin containing 0.78 cystine. The methionine content of pumpkin is 1.35% and lysine contents of 0.81, 0.57, 2.25, 0.69 and 2.41% for apple, citrus, lufa, maple and pumpkin, respectively.