Evaluation of the Effect of Calcium Carbide on Induce Ripening of Banana, Pawpaw and Mango cultivated within Kaduna Metropolis, Nigeria”

Abstract

This study was carried out to examined the effects of calcium carbide as a fruit ripening agent where calcium carbide was administered to 12 samples [mango (M1-M3), banana (B1-B3) and pawpaw (P1-P3),] at three different concentrations (1 g/kg, 5 g/kg and 10 g/kg of calcium carbide per kilogram of fruit) and control (0 g/kg). The results obtained revealed that calcium carbide is a very good ripening agent with a ripening time of 2days (48 hours) among all the fruits (mango, banana and pawpaw at 10 g/kg). The proximate analysis of the fruits indicated that the administration of calcium carbide may result in the increase of some food contents such as ash B3 (10 g/kg) 9.48%, fibre M3 (10 g/kg) 2.4%, and lipid B3 (10 g/kg) 8.8% while the moisture M3 (10 g/kg) 78.34%, Vitamin C M1 (10 g/kg) 50.14%, protein M2 (5 g/kg) 3.76% and carbohydrate P1 (1 g/kg) 44.96% were found to decrease with increased calcium carbide administration. The moisture, vitamin C, and protein contents of the fruits showed that calcium carbide administration results in reduction of these nutrients, while the administration of calcium carbide resulted in increased of ash, fibre and lipids in the fruits studied. These results showed that even though calcium carbide may have significant fruit ripening ability, it also causes significant reduction in the fruit nutrients for the Kaduna populace. Keywords: Banana, Calcium carbide, Fruits, Mango, Pawpaw.