Identification and Quantification of Physicochemical and Bioactive Components from Sugar Baby Variety of Watermelon (Citrullus lanatus)

The investigation aimed to analyze the qualitative attributes of ‘Sugar Baby’ variety of watermelon. Ripe fruit consisted of 68.30% flesh, 31.07% rind, and 1.58% seeds. Freshly extracted juice had a pH, total soluble solids, lycopene, ascorbic acid, and total phenolic content of 5.64, 8.90°Bx, 5.23 mg/100 mL juice, 8.22 mg/100 mL juice, and 15.48 mg GAE/100 mL juice, respectively, with a color intensity value of 45.37. Juice had a total aerobic bacteria and yeast & mold counts of 5.69 and 5.68 log cfu/mL, respectively. The predominant sugar and organic acid were fructose (31.10 mg/mL juice) and malic acid (3.38 mg/mL juice). Six key flavor compounds were identified such as 1-Dodecyne; 6-Nonenal (Z); propanoic acid 2-oxo-methyl ester; 2-propanol, 1-methoxy; 5-heptene, 2-one, 6-methyl and hexanal. The rind contains pectin (20.08%) and citrulline (13.36 mg/g and 9.78 mg/g in the skin and peel, respectively). Solvent extraction from dried seeds resulted in 38.66% oil.