PROXIMATE CONTENT AND LIPID PROFILE OF SEEDS FROM RAPANEA MELANOPHLOEOS (THE CAPE BEECH) TREE

Abstract

Rapanea melanophloeos (Cape beech) is a fruit-bearing tree indigenous to Southern Africa which produces edible fruit. Previous studies have focussed on investigating the nutritional potential of the tree’s fruit pulp. The nutritional potential of R. melanophloeos seeds is unknown. Seed samples obtained from ripe fruit of the Cape beech trees had their proximate analysis and lipid profiling done. The dry matter and ash contributed 91.29 ± 0.00 %, 1.50 ± 0.01 % of the mass of the seed. Whilst the other proximate analytes namely crude fibre, crude protein and ether extract made up 5.71 ± 0.43 % , 10.50 ± 0.49 % and 4.75 ± 0.09 % the mass of the seeds respectively. The fatty acid profile of the seed oil revealed Linoleic acid (50.43 ± 0.38 %) to be the most dominant. R. melanophloeos seeds are not a viable source of nutrients.