Protein solubility, mineral content, amino acid composition and electrophoretic patterns of some gourd seeds

This investigation was carried out on cantaloupe, sweet melon and water melon kernels. All varieties contained uniformly high crude protein, with values of 54.29%, 53.90% and 43.41% in cantaloupe, sweet melon and water melon, respectively. Fat content was highest in water melon kernels (46.16%), in sweet melon it was 37.67% and in cantaloupe kernels 36.01%. All studied samples are valuable source of the major elements and of iron, zinc, manganese and copper. The solubility of protein was higher when the concentration of NaCl was higher. Gourd kernels meal supplies high amounts of total nitrogen required for the synthesis of the dietary dispensable amino acids. It also supplies high amounts of threonine, leucine, phenylalanine and tryosine