Brinjal Or Eggplant (Solanum Melongena L)

Brinjal or eggplant (Solanum melongena L.) is an important solanaceous crop of sub-tropics and tropics. The name brinjal is popular in Indian subcontinents and is derived from Arabic and Sanskrit whereas the name eggplant has been derived from the shape of the fruit of some varieties, which are white and resemble in shape to chicken eggs. It is also called aubergine (French word) in Europe. India is native of Brinjal (Thompson and Kelly, 1957). The brinjal is of much importance in the warm areas of Far East, being grown extensively in India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, China and the Philippines. It is also popular in Egypt, France, Italy and United States. In India, it is one of the most common, popular and principal vegetable crops grown throughout
The varieties of Solanum melongena L. display a wide range of fruit shapes and colours, ranging from oval or egg-shaped to long club-shaped; and from white, green through degrees of purple pigmentation to almost black. It is popular among people of all social strata and hence, it is rightly called as vegetable of masses (Patel and Sarnaik, 2003). It should be highly pragmatic by the fact that, India being the centre of origin and diversity of brinjal, it should pave the way for bringing about a kind of plant type, which could enhance its quality and productivity without sacrificing the consumer needs (Shafeeq et al. 2007). Most of the commercially important varieties have been selected from the long established types of the tropical India and
It is low in calories and fats, contains mostly water, some protein, fibre and carbohydrates. It is a good source of minerals and vitamins and is rich in total water soluble sugars, free reducing sugars, amide proteins among other nutrients. It has been reported that on an average, the oblong-fruited eggplant cultivars are rich in total soluble sugars, whereas the long-fruited cultivars contain a higher content of free reducing sugars, anthocyanin, phenols, glycoalkaloids (such as solasodine), dry matter, and amide proteins (Bajaj et al. 1979). For processing purposes, the fruit should have high dry matter content and a low level of phenolics. Bitterness in eggplant is due to the presence of glycoalkaloids which are of wide occurrence in plants of solanaceae family. The glycoalkaloid contents in the Indian commercial cultivars vary from 0.37-4.83 mg/100 g fresh weight (Bajaj et al. 1981). Generally, the high content of glycoalkaloids (20mg/100 g fresh weight) produce a bitter taste and off flavor. The discoloration in eggplant fruit is attributed to high polyphenol oxidase activity. The cultivars which are least susceptible to discoloration are considered suitable for processing