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ABSTRACT
This research focuses on the analysis of essential nutrient necessary for body intake in cucumber (Cucumis sativus) fruit. Cucumbers are edible fruits, they are often eaten as vegetable but are scientifically considered as vegetable fruits as they contain enclosed seeds and develop from flower. Some healthy fruits were harvested from a garden, washed, weighed, sliced and furnace for 30 minutes and 2g of it was later ashed at 5000C. Then, the ash was used to prepare solution of the sample by the use of 5ml of 10% Hydrochloric solution and 5ml of 10% Nitric acid solution in order to dissolve the ash completely. The solution obtained was aspirated on presentation to the Atomic Absorption Spectrophotometer from where in the concentration of the individual essential elements were analyzed respectively. The elements obtained were Potassium (k) 14,823 mg/kg, Magnesium (mg) 481.01 mg/kg, Calcium (ca) 192.85 mg/kg and Sodium (Na) 140.10 mg/kg. The availability and high concentration of the essential elements obtained from cucumber fruits in this study indicated that cucumber possesses essential nutrients necessary for body intake. Hence the essential nutrients necessary for body intake in cucumber fruit was analyzed.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
COVER PAGE
TITLE PAGE
DECLARATION i
CERTIFICATION ii
DEDICATION iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT iv
ABSTRACT v
TABLE OF CONTENTS vi
LIST OF FIGURES————————————————————viii
LIST OF TABLES—————————————————————ix
LIST OF APPENDICES x
CHARATER ONE 1
INTRODUCTION 1
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY 1
1.1 CULTIVIATION AND GROWTH 2
1.1.1 WEEDING AND PEST CONTROL 4
1.1.2 IRRIGATION AND FERTILIZER APPLICATION 4
1.1.3 HARVEST AND PACKING 5
1.1.4 RELIGIONS OF CUCUMBERS PRODUCE 7
1.1.5 USES OF CUCUMBER 8
1.1.6 ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS 8
1.2 LOCATION OF THE STUDY 9
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM 10
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY 10
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY 11
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY 11
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY 12
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS 12
CHAPTER TWO 13
2.0 LITERATURE REVIEW 13
2.1 VEGETABLES AS GOOD SOURCES OF HUMAN NUTRITION AND HEALTH BENEFIT 14
2.2 ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS BENEFIT OF CONSUMER 20
2.3 THERAPEUTIC SIGNIFICANCE 22
CHAPTER THREE 27
MATERIALS AND METHODS 27
3.1 MATERIALS 27
3.2 METHODS 28
3.2.1 COLLECTION OF SAMPLE 28
3.2.2 STERILIZATION 29
3.2.3 PREPARATION OF SAMPLE 29
3.3 ANALYSIS OF SAMPLE 30
CHAPTER FOUR 31
RESULT AND DISCUSSION 31
CHAPTER FIVE 35
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION 35
5.1 CONCLUSION 35
5.2 RECOMMENDATION 35
REFERENCES 37
APPENDICES 41
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.0 BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY
Cucumbers are often eaten as vegetable but they are scientifically considered as fruits as they contain enclosed seeds and developed from a flower. Cucumbers, like cantaloupes, squash, pumpkins and watermelons, are members of the family Cumcurbitaceae. They are vine crops and can be grown on the ground or on poles or trellises to suspend the fruit (Starr et al., 2015).
Cucumber is scientifically called Cucumis sativus and usually come in three distinct-types: seedless, seeded, and mini. There are about 100 varieties, but come ones includes the English, Garden, Persian, Mini and Lemon.
The English cucumber is the longest, is narrow, and is often marketed in plastic wrap. The skin of English cucumbers is usually thin and often does not require peeling, in contrast, the garden cucumber has dark waxy skin. The skin is normally removed by consumers because of its bitter taste. Persian cucumbers are burpless in appearance, they tend to be smaller, sweeter, and seedless. The skin is smoother, thinner, and similar to the English variety and does not require peeling. These cucumbers tend to be milder and easier on the digestive system. Kirby cucumber popularly known as Mini cucumbers has become popular in the market place due to consumers preferences. They have a wide variety of skin colours ranging from yellow to dark green. The lemon cucumbers are round and yellow, resembling lemons. They are sweet, have thin skins and contain seeds (Fayed, 2015; Hichmuth, 2015, Armenian et al., 2015).
1.1 CULTIVIATION AND GROWTH
Cucumber Cucumis satvus are warm season plants and grow best between 650 to 750 f. The plant does not tolerate prolonged exposure to temperatures below 550 or above 900 f. cucumbers are grown in either fields or green houses. Fields grown cucumber plants are typically started as seed and are either mechanically or hand planted. Many commercial operators train their plants to grow on poles or trellises to keep the fruit suspended. Several training systems are used for trellises growing, but the umbrella system, is most common. In the umbrella system, all the lateral branches are removed as they appear until the main stem reaches a predetermined height. The plant is allowed to grow more freely so that the plant can concentrate on growing fruit, rather than height. Some growers plant bush type varieties allow the fruit to spread along the ground.
In contrast to field grown cucumbers, green-house cucumbers are normally established as transplants. Greenhouse cucumber plants have very large leaves and grow vigorously. Each plant is provided five to seven square feet of space and is always grow on a trellis. Greenhouse cucumbers require close monitoring of nutrients to maintain good health and productivity.
Like most crops, cucumbers do best under certain soil and temperature conditions. Cucumis sativus can be planted on a wide variety of soil types; however, deep, fertile soils that are well drained with PH of between 6 to 6.5 are ideal. poor plant growth and reduced yield can result from soil that is excessively acidic with PH below 6(USDA, 2015; hochmuth, 2015).
1.1.1 WEEDING AND PEST CONTROL
Weed control in cucumber production is accomplish through a variety of methods including use of cover crops and mulches, cultivation and hand weeding, and application of herbicides targeting the specific types of common weeds in particular field. Cucumis sativus plants are susceptible to variety of insect, bacterial, fungal, and nematode infections. Early identification of such infections or infestations is key to appropriate and rapid control methods. Disease prevention strategies include crop rotation, careful field selection, sanitation, soil treatments, and appropriate seed selections.
It is a common practice to utilize soil mulches for controlling weeds and protecting from insects as well as soil modifying temperatures, conserving water, and for controlling erosion (Schrader et al., 2015, USDA, 2015).
1.1.2 IRRIGATION AND FERTILIZER APPLICATION
Irrigation is accomplished either through flooding furrows or direct drip lines laid along planted rows. Cucumbers require frequent irrigation during the growing period particularly in environment where there is limited ground water availability in the soil where the crops are planted. Too little moisture will affect fruit shape where as water soaked field can lead to mildew and other disease problem(s).
The need for fertilization of cucumber growing areas can be generally made through both soil nutrient analysis which is (Ideal to be carried out at least four months before planting) and plant tissue nutrient analysis. For plant tissue analysis, growing leaves are sampled and analyzed for macro-and micronutrient content. Depending on results of these analysis, needs for fertilization to provide macronutrients such as nitrogen, phosphorus, potassium, calcium, magnesium and sulphur are determined (Hochmuth,2015; Schrader et al., 2015).
1.1.3 HARVEST AND PACKING
Cucumbers Cucumis sativus are harvested by handpicking or mechanically or large areas. The time from planting to harvest can be relatively quick in as few as 36 to 40 days from planting depending on variety and weather conditions. In approximation, a first harvest date can be predicted by counting forward eight to 10days from the first appearance of fully opened female flowers. cucumbers are harvested at different stages from quite young to mature before seeds reach final maturity and harden. Those that are harvested prior to maturation of seeds are marketed as seedless. Fruit is harvested when uniform length, shape, and diameter are reached and before yellowing appear at the blossom end. Generally, harvest length is determined by target market. For example, typical fruit length in English type cucumbers for the fresh whole market is 12 to 14 inches, garden cucumbers destined for fresh sliced market are harvested at 7.5 to 8.5 inches. There is no standard that exist for mini-cucumbers in general these fruits are harvested when they reach 5 to 8 inches in length (Agricultural statistics Annual report, 2012, United State Department of Agriculture National Agricultural Statistics Services (USDA) 2015). Frequent harvests are necessary because fruits mature quickly. Continued, timely harvest keeps the plants in a productive mode since cucumber plants have a limit to the number of fruits they can support at any time.
In United State and California, and other Western Countries, marketable garden type cucumbers are sorted by size and quantity and packed in fiberboard cartons. Fruits are generally graded and sized in farm sheds and packed by counts of 30, 32,36,40,42 or 46 per fiberboard carton. (Agricultural Statistical Overviews, Califorinia Agricultural Statistical review, 2015, Swaider et al., 2015) Although, in Nigeria, Cucumbers are carefully selected by sizes or length and packed in a transparent plastic bag for sales. However, in some localities fresh cucumbers are well arranged into clean basin or bag by farmers or marketers to centre (Market) where consumers make selection of individual choice.
1.1.4 RELIGIONS OF CUCUMBERS PRODUCE
The major producers of cucumbers in the world are China, India, Russia and United States of America. In most Countries in Africa, cucumber production is still very low due to the fact that large percentage of the farmers are peasants and they have very little or no income to promote large scale or mechanize farming. However in Nigeria, some farmers in the South-West, South-South, East and parts of the North South produce cucumbers for consumption in the local communities and cities (Schultheis et al., 2015).
1.1.5 USES OF CUCUMBER
There are three distinct uses for cucumbers in the marketplace; fresh whole, fresh sliced, and pickled. Whether it is the English, garden, Persian, mini, or lemon variety, fresh whole cucumbers are grown for consumers retail sales. Fresh slices cucumbers are typically garden variety and are grown for the food service sector, which requires uniform sized slices for packaged salads and restaurant chain salad bars (Armenian et al., 2015; Watson, 2015).
1.1.6 ESSENTIAL NUTRIENTS
The basic major elements (essential elements or macronutrients) which plants and animals need for proper growth other than carbon, oxygen and hydrogen are: nitrogen (N), Phosphorus (P), Sulphur (S), Potassium (K), Magnesium (Mg), Calcium (Ca) and iron (Fe). These seven elements are called essential elements and constitute the essential nutrients which animals or plants needs for normal growth and development.
(Idodo, 2004) In addition to the major or essential nutrients are the major or essential Phytochemical nutrients available in most plant vegetables. For example, Cucumis sativus among other cucurbita species (Pumpkin, squash and melon) are rich in vitamins, carotenoids, tocopherols etc. In general, vegetable fruit such as cucumbers provides basic phytonutriceutical to the body of its consumer for nourishment and proper functioning of the body systems (Joao, 2012).
1.2 LOCATION OF THE STUDY
The location where Cucumis sativus samples were collected for study was in Kala-Oko community where agriculture is the major occupation of the people, although in subsistence form. Kala-Oko is a town in Nyo-khana Kingdom of the Ogoni ethic nationality. This community found in Khana local government Rivers State has Served as one of the major suppliers of edible crops including cucumbers on every market day to its local government Capital, market Bori city where other marketers from different parts of the State (Rivers State) come to buy crops commodities for consumption and sales. This study area is in Rivers State, in the Niger- Delta region of Nigeria. It is expedient to note that cucumber crops grown in this locality are of attractive quality (Variety) but still on small scale production. However, the promotion of this crop from small quantity to large quantity production can promote the likelihood of the inhabitants and as well boast the economy of the State via agriculture if the Rivers/Nigeria government could render financial aid.
1.3 STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM
Due to inadequate information in Nigeria, Africa and the world at large on cucumbers cultivation and the essential nutrient needed from its consumption, Essential nutrients necessary for body intake in cucumbers cultivated locally has been chosen.
1.4 AIM AND OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY
This research investigate the essential nutrients necessary for body intake in Cucumis sativus cultivated locally in Kala- Oko community, Khana Local Government Area of Rivers State in Niger- Delta region of Nigeria. To achieve this aim, cucumbers planted locally in the mentioned community were collected and was analyzed of its nutrition content via Scientifical method. The results of the nutrition content obtained were documented. Finally conclusion was done based on the validity of the results in relation to pervious research on the subject matter related to it.
1.5 SCOPE OF THE STUDY
This work focus on the investigation of the essential nutrients in cucumber Cucumis sativus fruits and how useful such nutrients are for the human body intake.
1.6 SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY
This research work deliberated on the use of cucumbers produced in a local community to the consumers whose major aim or target for consumptions may not have been known to them. Hence, it encourages large scale cultivation of cucumbers in the area to meet up the future demand, reveals the need to consumer cucumbers to consumers. It offers the basic health benefit gotten from the consumption of whole cucumbers. This research will also, promote the sales of Cucumis sativus, contribute more adequate information to other researcher that shall need it and can offer solution to some health challenging problems oppressing mankind in the field of food and nutrition and pharmaceutical industry.
1.7 LIMITATION OF THE STUDY
This research study is limited to the determination of essential nutrient necessary for body intake in cucumber fruit. Particularly the one grown in Kala-oko community in Khana Local Government Area Rivers State of Nigeria.
1.8 DEFINITION OF TERMS
Cucumber: A fruit belonging to the cucurbitateae family which has high water content, dark-green, yellow-green skin.
Essential Nutrient: They are the basic nutrients required for growth and proper functioning of a living organisms they mostly occur in demented form. Eg. Magnesium, Potassium. Calcium, Sodium.
Body Intake: the consumption of solid, gas or liquid into the system of living organism.
Necessary: very important, useful needed and basic for proper functioning.
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