β-Carotene, Cucumisin Content and Fruit Morphology of Melon (Cucumis melo) Germplasm Collection

This study was carried out to investigating quality and nutritional traits of melon genetic resources. It could provide important baseline data in breeding for increased β-Carotene, cucumisin content thereby increasing the marketability of melon. To this end, we have examined some fruit morphological traits and β-Carotene, cucumisin content of 163 genetic resources. The morphological characters were recorded on the field and inside laboratory and nutritional contents for β-carotene, cucumisin was measured using spectrophotomertic and HPLC methods. Melon fruits have shown a diverse morphological characters. Green and white is dominant for fruit skin color and round and oval-shape is dominant for form in the entire collections. The β-carotene content varied between 0.5 and 233.6mg/kg, 0.7 and 226.5mg/kg, 0.4 and 189.0 mg/kg using UV-Vis and microplated reader instruments, HPLC respectively. The high β-carotene contents were characterized five melon fruit originated from South Africa, Uzbekistan, Albania, France. The cucumisin content varied between 0.3 and 33.5 unit/mg, 0.29 and 32.1unit/mg using UV-Vis and microplated reader instruments, respectively.