# Biochemical Composition of Eggplant Fruits: A Review
## 6 Carbohydrates in Eggplant  
According to [PERSON] et al. [15], carbohydrate content in eggplant flour was 62-68%, and the main soluble sugars were glucose and fructose [15]. Experiments on different cultivars revealed that available carbohydrates in eggplant contribute to low sugar content in the fruit. [PERSON] et al. [41] carried out a study to identify and quantify soluble sugars, total available carbohydrates, and the starch content in scarlet and gboma eggplant varieties; total available carbohydrates varied from 2.89 g/100 g for scarlet eggplant BBS116 to 8.04 g/100 g for gboma eggplant BBS178; and total soluble sugars varied from 0.21 g/100 g for gboma eggplant RNL371 to 0.55 g/100 g for scarlet eggplant BBS157 (Table 6) [41]. Moreover, the major soluble sugars found in the scrutinized samples were glucose (57.1%) and fructose (31.0%). This fact was also supported by [PERSON] et al. [42], who concluded that glucose and fructose were present in higher concentrations than sucrose.  
The starch content in eggplant is generally higher than that of the total soluble sugars, which is probably because the fruit of eggplant is harvested when physiologically immature  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Variety**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Total Available**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Total Soluble Sugars**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Starch**} \\  & **Carbohydrates** & & & \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Scarlet eggplant} \\ \hline BBS116 & 2.89 & 0.43 & 2.46 \\ BBS157 & 4.64 & 0.55 & 4.09 \\ RNL187 & 3.28 & 0.28 & 3.00 \(\pm\) 0.22 \\ \hline \multicolumn{4}{c}{Gboma eggplant} \\ \hline BBS178 & 8.04 & 0.36 & 7.68 \\ BBS196 & 6.71 & 0.35 & 6.36 \\ RNL371 & 6.22 & 0.21 & 6.01 \\ RNL374 & 4.94 & 0.34 & 4.60 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 6: Carbohydrate content in scarlet and gboma eggplant varieties (g/100 g) [41].  
\begin{table}
\begin{tabular}{c c c c c c} \hline \hline \multirow{2}{*}{**Minerals**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**American-Type**} & \multicolumn{2}{c}{**Chinese-Type**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Indian-Type**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Philippines-Type**} & \multirow{2}{*}{**Thai-Type**} \\  & & & & & \\ K & 152.15 & 151.21 & 191.18 & 121.06 & 176.46 \\ Ca & 31.36 & 28.00 & 59.63 & 32.80 & 45.08 \\ P & 29.61 & 21.21 & 33.52 & 13.80 & 30.42 \\ Mg & 25.35 & 15.29 & 28.96 & 15.74 & 20.88 \\ Na & 8.49 & 9.40 & 11.54 & 5.76 & 5.61 \\ Fe & 0.86 & 2.40 & 1.53 & 3.13 & 1.80 \\ Zn & 0.51 & 0.33 & 0.78 & 0.26 & 0.45 \\ Mn & 0.41 & 0.36 & 0.44 & 0.30 & 0.39 \\ Cu & 0.15 & 0.15 & 0.15 & 0.13 & 0.18 \\ \hline \hline \end{tabular}
\end{table}
Table 5: Mineral content of eggplant cultivars (mg/100 g) on a fresh weight basis [18].  
and the hydrolysis of starch is not complete [43]. In another study, [PERSON] et al. [44] investigated the biochemical composition of seven eggplant cultivars of occidental varieties with several origins, with the aim to develop eggplant fruits with enhanced quality. The study observed that the fraction of total available carbohydrates varied from 2.99 g/100 g for IVIA371 to 4.19 g/100 g for H-11, with significant differences among the cultivars; total soluble sugars varied from 0.74 g/100 g for BBS-118 to 2.13 g/100 g for H11; and starch content also produced significant differences among the cultivars, and varied from 1.43 g/100 g for Dourga to 2.38 g/100 g for H11 (Table 7) [44]. The study indicated the main soluble sugars were glucose (47.6%) and fructose (38.6%). Although sucrose and maltose were also detected, their concentrations were relatively low, with 7.6% and 6.9% of the total content of soluble sugars, respectively. With the exception of Dourga, the content in starch for the other six cultivars was found to be higher than the total soluble sugar content. Therefore, the ratio of total soluble sugars/starch was in all cases lower than 1 (1.50 for Dourga) (Table 7) [44].