DETERMINATION OF SELECTED METALS AND NUTRITIONAL COMPOSITION IN PAPAYA (CARCIA PAPYA) AT SAJA DISTRICT, YEM SPECIAL WOREDA, SOUTHERN ETHOIOPIA

Abstract

Papaya is commonly known for its food and nutritional values throughout the world. The study was aimed to determine the level of selected metals as well as nutritional value of Papaya samples collected from six kebeles of Yem Special Woreda, SNNPRS. The optimized wet digestion method was used in the analysis. The results revealed that papaya has the ability to accumulate relatively higher amounts of Ca and Mg among the determined essential metals. The result of metal analysis revealed that papaya contains appreciable level of essential metals and the level of toxic heavy metals (Pb and Cd ) were below maximum permissible value set by WHO/FAO indicating that the given fruit was safe to use The concentration ranges in dry weight basis in decreasing order were: Ca (7.13 -24.51) >Mg (9.76-10.87) > K (3.83 – 4.64) > Fe (1.18 – 5.76) >Mn (0.19-0.49) > Zn (0.14-0.45)>Pb(0.16-0.24) > Cu (0.14-0.16) >Cd (0.01) mg/kg. The proximate compostion results indicated that the percentage of nutritional value in papaya ranges from (5.90 to 6.37), (70.56 to 72.42), (6.47 to 13.90), (2.08 to 2.85), (1.40 to 2.20), (6.21 to 11.45), (85.44 to 105.28); for ash, moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude fiber, carbohydrates and total energy respectively. The efficiency of digestion methods was revealed that the excellent recoveries obtained which were found within the acceptable range for the analyzed metals. Regarding the proximate analysis, papaya was a good source of carbohydrate, fat, protein, and fiber and energy contents.