Proximate analysis from the seeds of Annona muricata (Soursop) / Muhammad Nurarief Affendy Mohamed Salleh

Annona species commonly referred to as “Custard-Apple” belongs to the Annonaceae family and has been grown for its edible fruits in many tropical countries around the world. Annona muricata L. is one of these. Malaysian’s consumes soursop in their daily life in forms of candies, juice, shakes, ice cream or eating it as it is. Apart from that, they will completely discard the seeds without their attention. Therefore, it will lead in increasing of waste of raw material as the seeds may contain beneficial properties and by-product. Humans and animals have relied on plants as sources of food. Each plant has different composition of nutrients and medicinal properties according to the plant type, geographic location and other factors. Soursop seeds have a high potential to be used as food supplement or medicine as many previous studies have shown the fruit itself has many benefits and has been used largely in traditional remedy. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to conduct close analyzes of Annona muricata seed obtained in Kuala Pilah and Tanjong Ipoh from the local market. From the fruit pulp, seeds of Annona muricata were removed, dried at room temperature and blended into fine powder with a blender. The proximate analyses were carried out using standard procedures. Based on the study, Tanjong Ipoh seeds has moisture content with the value of 7.09% while Kuala Pilah seeds contained 6.01% of moisture. The seeds from Kuala Pilah ash content is 2.83% compared to 2.62% from the Tanjong Ipoh seeds. Seeds from Tanjong Ipoh also have lipid content of 19.93% and 15.83% for Kuala Pilah seeds. The seeds protein content from Kuala Pilah have the percentage of 1.39% compared to seeds from Tanjong Ipoh with 1.20%. Carbohydrate content for seeds from Kuala Pilah and Tanjong Ipoh is 73.93% and 69.26%, respectively. Finally, fiber content for Kuala Pilah seeds is 62.57% and 59.47% for Tanjong Ipoh soursop seeds. In conclusion, Annona muricata seed's nutrient composition showed that the seed can be used for formulating animal feeds and other industrial purposes such as in cosmetic products as well as for food product. The high fat content can be purified and turned into biodiesel.