Abstract
The United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger) aims to provide universal access to nutrient-dense food for all communities, regardless of their economic status. Currently, most fruit species in the fruit industry are exotic varieties, such as mangoes, oranges, grapes, and English cucumbers. However, introducing indigenous fruit crops, particularly the African horned cucumber could accelerate the attainment of SDG 2 (Zero Hunger) by providing essential vitamins and minerals. There is limited literature on the fruit’s biochemical content response and specific fertilizer type. The current study evaluated the impact of differing growing environments (greenhouse and shade net) and fertiliser type (organic and inorganic/chemical) on the biochemical constituents of African horned cucumber fruit. The fruit nutritional contents such as total flavonoids, total phenols, vitamin C, vitamin E, and minerals (calcium, phosphorus, magnesium, iron, zinc) were compared with the average recommended daily intake (ARDI) to determine its potential contribution to human health and nutrition. Results illustrate that nutritional contents comprising total flavonoids (0.58 CE mg/100g DW), total phenols (39.5 GAE mg/100g DW), and vitamins C (67.8 mg/100g DW) and E (46.9 mg/100g DW), increased under the combined treatment of greenhouse conditions and chemical fertilizers. In contrast, mineral elements such as calcium, phosphorus (577.7 mg/100g DW), iron (11.5 mg/100g DW), and zinc (25 mg/100g DW) were abundant under the combined treatment of shade net environment and chemical fertiliser compared to other treatments. Therefore, the study concludes that shade net environment and chemical fertiliser type maximise the fruit quality of African horned cucumber.
Presenters
Nkosikhona Goodman MagwazaStudent, PhD, University of South Africa, Gauteng, South Africa
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
KEYWORDS
SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT GOAL 2, UNDERUTILIZED CROPS, FOOD SECURITY, MICRO-MINERALS
