African eggplants are highly valued constituents of the Nigerian food. However, their nutritional potentials have not been fully tapped due to inadequate information on their nutritional and anti-nutritional qualities. This present study investigated the proximate, minerals, anti-nutrient contents as well as the estimation of mineral ratios and Mineral Safety Index of four selected edible solanum species namely, Solanum anguivi, S. gilo, S. menalogena and S. aethiopicum. The proximate contents (%) ranged from 4.19-5.46 (moisture content), 1.71-2.49 (crude fat), 4.57-5.45 (crude ash), 3.76-4.93 (crude protein), 5.20-6.30 (crude fiber) and 77.14-78.58 (carbohydrate). The solanum species were good sources of energy with total metabolizable energy of 1.458MJ-1.484MJ. The four solanum species contained high K, Ca, Mg, low Fe, Mn, Zn and Cu, while amount of Cd, Ni and Pb were very low. The mineral ratios of K/Na, Ca/Mg, Ca/K, Zn/Cu and [K/(Ca+Mg)] were below the minimum good ratios levels of 1.0, 4.17, 4.0, 8.0 and 2.2 respectively which are good for man. The anti-nutrient contents revealed low phytate, oxalate and cyanide levels. The calculated Phytate/Zn, Phytate/Ca and Oxalate/Ca were lower than the threshold levels and would support absorption and bioavailability of Zn and Ca in the samples while that of Phytate/Fe was above the critical value and this indicates unavailability of iron in these eggplant fruits. The mineral differences observed showed that S. menalogena and S. aethiopicum had greater minerals while the Mineral Safety Index results revealed that the body could not be overloaded with any of the minerals investigated. The eggplants are rich in fiber, ash, carbohydrate and minerals with moderate protein. The low level of the anti-nutrient is good and poses no deleterious effect when consumed. The eggplants have nutritional health benefits; hence, their consumption should be encouraged to address food insecurity in Nigeria

The objective of this study was to develop and characterize a pH indicator based on chitosan (C) and starch (S) including anthocyanins from eggplant to indicate food quality changes through the detection of changes in the pH of packaged food products. Anthocyanins were extracted with solvents including ethanol and water (7:3, V:V) (EgP-E) and water (EgP-W) in acidic pH. The pH indicator films were obtained incorporating anthocyanin as 1.5 g extract/100 g film solution. The optical, mechanical and water vapor permeability properties were used to characterize the pH indicator films. The total monomeric anthocyanin content and phenolic content of extract solutions were also determined. Color variations of pH indicator films were measured by a colorimeter after immersion in different pH buffers (pH 2.0–10.0). Initially, dried C films and S based films were observed in a violet color and a magenta color, respectively. C and S films with anthocyanins showed color variations from pink (in acidic pH) to bluish-green (in neutral pH) and to violet (in basic pH) in different pH values. The water vapor permeability of films with anthocyanins was higher than films without anthocyanins. Additionally, C and S based films including anthocyanins extracted with water showed better permeability values. C:EgP-W and S:EgP-W films presented higher elasticity values when compared with films including ethanolic extracts (p

The aim of this study is to determine the effect of four levels of irrigation water and three kinds of fertilizer on components of field-grown eggplant (Solanum melongena) in the years 2017 and 2018. Treatments included four irrigation regimes, which were 100% (I100, control), 80% (I80), 60% (I60), and 40% (I40) of evaporation from Class A pan and three different fertilizers, which were chemical fertilizer (CHF) with 40 kg da-1, organic fertilizer (OF) and developed organic fertilizer (DOF) with 2000 kg da-1. The experiment was designed with a split-plot randomized block with 3 replications. In experimental years, all irrigation treatments were irrigated 12 and 13 times, respectively with a drip irrigation system. Irrigation water amounts applied at I40, I60, I80, I100 in 2017 as 122, 183, 244, 305 mm and in 2018 were 147, 218, 289, 360 mm respectively. Seasonal plant water consumption values are in 2017, 2018 years respectively as follow: I40; 265 mm, 277 mm I60; 326 mm, 342 mm, I80; 386 mm; 382 mm, I100; 447 mm, 423 mm. In both experiment years, the effect of irrigation levels on plant components was statistically significant, the highest value of each component in both seasons was at I100 treatment, it was determined respectively as follow: Plant height PH (67.3 to 89.8 cm), branches number per plant BN (5.1 and 7.0), fruit number per plant FN (5.3 and 7.0), fruit weight FW (190.33 and 198.22 g).