Comparative Study of the Constituents of the Fruits Pulps and Seeds of Canarium ovatum, Persea americana and Dacryodes edulis

This work was carried out to evaluate and compare the nutritional and phytochemical composition of three pears commonly consumed as food/snacks in Nigeria. The nutritional and phytochemical composition of the pulps and seeds of African pear (Dacryodes edulis), avocado pear (Persea americana) and Pili nut (Canarium ovatum) were determined using standard methods. The amino acid composition of the fruit pulps was also determined using an amino acid analyzer while the fatty acid composition of the oils extracted from the seeds and pulps was determined using GC-MS. The results show that all three species are good sources of food nutrients. Crude fibre (46.33%) and carbohydrate (54.23%) were more abundant in the African pear seed while Pili nut was found to contain the highest level of fat (45.29%). The avocado pear seed had the highest ash (3.50%) and the lowest protein content (1.33%). Tannin was more abundant in the avocado pear seed (0.76mg/100g) and least in the African pear seed (0.24mg/100g); saponin occurred most in avocado pear pulp (0.88mg/100g) and least in avocado pear seed (0.52mg/100g) while phytates were found more in Pili nut (0.58mg/100g). The three species contain good quantities of amino acids with glutamic acid being the most abundant one (10.94 g/100g protein in African pear pulps) while methionine was the least abundant (0.54 g/100g protein in pili pear pulp). Palmitic acid was present in all the pulp samples. Avocado seed oil was high in fatty acids (100%) while the oil of African pear pulp was found to contain only 29.13% fatty acids. The pulps and seeds of these fruits have been shown to have great nutritional and medicinal potentials which can be exploited to reduce waste generated from the fruits and also increase farmers' income.