Chemical Composition and Minerals Content of Sudanese Baobab (Adansonia digitata L) Fruit Pulp

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the chemical composition and minerals content of baobab fruit pulp collected El Obeid, Umm Ruwaba, Damazin and Nyala. The fruit pulp was abtained by breaking the capsules manually, then the seeds were removed and dry pulp powder was sieved using appropriate mesh. Samples of pulp were analyzed for proximate chemical composition, minerals, total and reducing sugars. The chemical compositions of baobab fruit pulp from the different locations differ significantly. The mineral contents have ranges of 33.99 -89.67 mg/100g Na, 16.68-37.59 mg/100g K, 51.57 -87.62 mg/100g P, 308.98-398.20 mg/100g Ca, 70.95 -186.68 mg/100g Mg and 6.81 - 27.21 mg/100g Fe. Baobab pulp from El Obeid has the highest contents of total sugars of 38.55g/100g, reducing sugars (10.88/100g) and non –reducing sugars (27.68mg/100g),while baobab pulp from Nyala exhibited the lowest levels of total sugars (27.72 mg/100g),reducing sugars (10.51 mg/100g) and non- reducing sugars (17.14 mg/100g).The finding of this study revealed variations in proximate chemical composition, mineral content and sugars for baobab fruit pulp collected from different locations in Sudan. All samples of baobab fruit pulp contain sufficient amounts of minerals that might enhance the health benefit upon consumption.