Nutritional and biochemical analysis of locally produced wine from Cucumis melo L. fruit

Cucumis melo L. (sweet melon) fruits are well known source of beneficial nutrients for human beings. They are highly perishable with short shelf life which made them susceptible to postharvest wastes. Therefore, processing them into other forms such as wine would help in preserving or utilizing the content of the fruit. The study investigated the biochemical content of locally produced wine from Cucumis melo L. fruit. The proximate, mineral, physicochemical, phytochemicals and amino acid content of the wine were analyzed. The result of the physicochemical analysis revealed that the Cucumis melo L. wine has a pH of 3.60, temperature of 23.00 °C, alcoholic content of 12.20 ± 0.122% and total sugar of 2.8 ± 0.28%. The study also revealed that Cucumis melo L. wine was high in proximate composition with moisture content of 87.54%, ash content of 0.15%, fat of 0.27%, total carbohydrate 0.13%, fiber of 0.12%, and protein of 0.21%. The mineral content of the wine showed that it contained certain essential element such as calcium (3.80 mg/100 ml), magnesium (1.60 mg/100 ml), sodium (3.80 mg/100 ml) and other element. The phytochemicals found in the wine were tannin (321.21 mg/100 ml), flavonoid (301.26 mg/100 ml), saponins (284.14 mg/100 ml), terpenes (265.32 mg/100 ml) and alkaloid (240.14 mg/100 ml). Seven essential and eight non-essential amino acids were revealed in Cucumis melo L. fruit wine through this study. The essential amino acids include; Histidine (514.4±0.7 mg/100 ml), Threonine (470.4±8.4 mg/100 ml), Valine (513.7±0.4 mg/100 ml), Isoluecine (632.10±0.5 mg/100 ml), Leucine (433.7±0.4 mg/100 ml), Lysine (311.2±1.5 mg/100 ml) and Phenylalanine (219.4±1.6 mg/100 ml). The non-essential amino acids revealed in the study are; Aspartate (28.6±6.2 mg/100 ml), Glutamic acids (125.4±5.2 mg/100 ml), Serine (115.8±2.6 mg/100 ml), Glutamine (249.5±14.2 mg/100 ml), Arginine (22.4±0.7 mg/100 ml), Alanine (192.4±5.6 mg/100 ml), Tyrosine (27.7±1.4 mg/100 ml) and Proline (42.1±1.5 mg/100 ml). It could be concluded that tropically available fruit in Nigeria like Cucumis melo L. fruit is suitable for fruit wine production with high nutritional quality and good biochemical standards.