| Guna seed extraction presents an onerous task and has been the labour and time consuming operation that militates against the large scale production and processing of this important oil crop. To overcome this problem, a guna seed extractor that works on the principle of impact from breaker arms and macerators was developed. The seed extractor consists of a hopper equipped with flow rate control device, a seed extraction unit, winnowing unit and power system. Performance tests were conducted on the seed extractor using the fruits of two varieties of guna crop namely citrullus colocynthis and citrullus lanatus in the moisture ranges of 87.21-92.45% (wb) and 85.07-89.74% (wb) respectively, obtained by varying the fruit storage duration. Result of tests and... |
