Determination of Chemical Composition and Nutritive Value with Fatty Acid Compositions of African Mangosteen (Garcinia Livingstonei)

Abstract

African mangosteen (Garcinia livingstoneiT. Anderson) is native to Africa and is exotic to otherparts of the world. It is a fruit bearing tree with multipleuses. This study was purposed to determine, by analysis,the chemical compositions and nutritive value of the fruitsof African mangosteen. Proximate compositions variedwith the portions such as epicarp, mesocarp, endocarpand seed tested. All fruit portions contained carbohy-drate (37.67–95.02%) and crude protein (0.65–31.76%)as their major components. Moisture (0.45–3.42%), crudefat (1.23–19.55%), crude fiber (2.93–21.13%) and ash(1.76–5.44%) were also found at different levels, depend-ing upon the portions. All portions of fruit were rich inmacro and micro elements. The fruits also possessed phe-nolics (174.02–10.725mg GAE per g), flavonoid (19.25to 99.98 μg QE per g) and alkaloid (1.56 to 9.49 mg/kg)contents. The constitution of tannins and oxalate whichcontribute towards the anti-nutritive value was also low,thus making the fruits beneficial for consumption. Qualityattributes like relative amount of oleic acid, total unsat-urated fatty acid, acid value, free fatty acid, peroxidevalue and iodine value showed that the seed oil of Africanmangosteen can become one among the oleic acid basedvegetable oils for consumption