ABSTRACT

Two samples of Cartea papaya (yellow and red) were analyzed for their chemical compounds, phytochemical and proximate composition of the latex, Photochemical result shows that cyanogenic glycoside in yellow pawpaw (31.86±0.01) is higher compared with the red sample (24.62±0.02) and in both samples, this phytochemical is the highest. This is followed by the presence of saponins as 7.69±0.01 and 7.42±0.01 for the yellow and red pawpaw samples, respectively while terpenes for both samples are 6.12±0.01 and 5.89±0.00, respectively. Alkaloids present in the yellow sample arc comparativclv lower than the red sample while other phytochemicals are insignificantly present. Proximate composition ofthe samples show that crude proteins are present in both samples in a significant (P<0.05) concentration when compared with other compositions while moisture content was followed as 21.46±0.02 and 19.17±0.02 for the red and yellow samples, respectively. The energy value of yellow pawpaw (310.94±0.03) shows a non-significant (P><0.05) increase when compared with the red pawpaw (304.49±0.09). The figure above shows that papain in the latex of yellow pawpaw is significantly (P><0.05) higher than that of the red pawpaw while the percentage of other compounds are non-significantly (P>0.05) different between both species of pawpaw. From this result, it was seen that the results from these samples have some amount of chemical compositions which can be of nutritive values.