Vol. 11, Issue 12 (2022)

The objective of the work was to study the proximate composition, minerals of seeds and physico-chemical properties of seed oil of Koelreuteria elegans (K. elegans) in order to explore its nutritional valve in human and animal diets. The oil was extracted from the ground seed material using petroleum ether (60-80 ºC) in a soxhlet apparatus for 8h and physico-chemical properties were analysed by some standard methods. The results showed that seeds contained moisture content 7.1±0.2%, ash content 1.3±0.1%, crude fibre content 10.3±0.6%, crude protein content 19.5±0.6%, carbohydrates value 36.8±1.5%, energy value 627.3±6.6 KJ/100g and oil content, free fatty acids, peroxide value, saponification value, unsaponifiable matter, iodine value, total carotenoids, total tocoferol in the oil were, 25.0±0.2%, 1.2±0.02%, 1.8±0.1meqKg^-1, 198.1±0.2 mg/gKOH, 4.3±0.1%, 90.9±1.2 g/100 g, 15.1±0.3 mg/Kg, 34.7±1.8 mg/100g respectively. Fatty acid composition showed 61.0±0.5% of saturated fatty acids and 32.5±0.3% of unsaturated fatty acids. The mineral determination showed that k. elegans seeds contain 55.0±1.4 ppm of Zn, 175.0±3.5 ppm of Cu, 606.0±28.3 ppm of Mn and 519.0±16.5 ppm of Fe. The low moisture content high nutritional value indicates that it can be stored for a longer duration and can be a good source of feed however high proportion of long chain fatty acid and significant amount of heavy metals indicates that it is not suitable for edible purpose but it could be a good source of fuel for industrial purpose.