Chemical composition and pollution research in pumpkin fruit of various genotypes

Abstract

Currently pumpkins are very popular vegetable containing a high nutritional value and simple cultivation technology. In Šakiai district farm, the pumpkin cv. ‘Rouge vif d’Etampes’ of Cucurbita Maxima genotype and cv. ‘Muscade de Provence’ of Cucurbita moschata genotype were grown for research. Standard methods were applied to identify the amount of moisture, crude fibre, vitamin C, potassium, nitrates and heavy metal residues in pumpkins’ peel and flesh. The highest amount of moisture was determined in pumpkins’ flesh of cvs. ‘Rouge vif d’Etampes’ (94.78%) and ‘Muscade de Provence’ (94.77%). It was established that the peel of ‘Muscade de Provence’ contains the highest amount of vitamin C (13.2 mg 100g-1) and the peel of ‘Rouge vif d’Etampes’ contains the highest amount of crude fibre (23.16%) and potassium (181.8 g kg-1). It was carried out, that the least amount of nitrates was accumulated in the flesh of ‘Muscade de Provence’ pumpkins (140.9 mg kg-1). Residues of heavy metals cadmium and lead did not exceed the established standards, however, a particularly high amount of zinc (2.976 mg kg-1) was found in the peel of ‘Muscade de Provence’ pumpkins. Pumpkin fruit nutritional value and chemical pollution are influenced by agro-biological factors, meteorological and growth conditions and the most important – features of plant species and cultivar.