Development of a Manual Egusi (Citrulus Vulgaris) Washing Machine

Abstract

Egusi is an important oil seed plant used in the food industry. However, the washing of egusi seeds after harvest has been a major challenge to the egusi farmers in Nigeria. The washing of egusi seeds after harvest is locally done by the use of basket containing unwashed egusi seeds submerged inside water and washed with hand to remove the slime and dirt which is labour intensive and time consuming. A manual egusi (Citrulus Vulgaris) washing machine was developed to help egusi farmers in washing of egusi seeds after manual pod cracking and seeds scooping. The average length, width, thickness and sphericity of 100 egusi seeds were first determined to be 15 mm, 8.8 mm, 2.06 mm and 0.43 mm and used in the machine design. The machine was designed and fabricated using available materials and it consist of five major components which are; cylindrical drum, perforated drum, roller, water tank and frame with a capacity of 32.14kg/batch. The machine was evaluated to have 75.3% washing efficiency, 0.08% percentage loss, and 0.0% damaged egusi respectively.