Ado Umar FAROUQ^1,, Esther Chisomu NWANI¹

In recent years, in a bid to cut cost and maximize profit due to the fast spoilage of fruits harvested ripe, farmers have come up with an artificial means to ripen fruits through the use of ripening agents which are relatively detrimental to the human health and also affects fruit quality. This study was therefore carried out to determine the residual effects of calcium carbide on pawpaw fruit quality where calcium carbide of two concentrations (10g and 20g) was administered to two (2) group samples and control sample at (0g). Each concentration of CaC₂ was wrapped in a piece of paper and kept at the bottom of two containers labeled sample A and B. The fruit samples were packed accordingly and covered tightly to limit the leakage of acetylene produced. A drop of water was added to the CaC₂ to release the gas before placing the fruit samples in the container. After 24 hours the wrapped CaC₂ was removed from the containers and allowed to ripen. The control sample was allowed to ripen at room temperature. The findings of this study revealed that sample B gave a higher percentage of moisture (91.33%), protein (0.40%) and crude fiber (0.38). The control sample C, gave higher compositions of crude lipid (0.21%), ash (0.31%) and carbohydrate (11.82%). Sample A and sample B gave higher composition of minerals; sodium (6.21mg and 7.40mg), potassium (25.10mg and 25.32mg), calcium (27.94mg and 28.80mg) and magnesium (10.58mg and 11.74mg) respectively. Sample A gave a higher concentration of vitamin C (36.4%) while a higher content of TTA was recorded in samples A and B (0.17% and 0.19%). pH obtained in this study was high in the sample C (5.30). It was seen that natural means of ripening fruits are much safer than ripening with artificial means which tends to affect fruit quality and pose several health hazards to consumers.

pawpaw, calcium carbide, effects, ripening