Value addition and quality evaluation of West Indian cherry(Malpighia punicifolia L)

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Date
2006
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Department of Home Science, College of Horticulture, Vellanikkara
Abstract
The present study entitled “Value addition and quality evaluation of West Indian cherry” was an investigation on the nutritive values of West Indian cherry fruits, product development such as pickle, preserve, squash and sauce and evaluation of organoleptic, nutritional and shelf life qualities of the developed products. Physical examination of the fruit in both the maturity stages revealed that the red ripe fruits were superior in fruit weight (6.25g), pulp recovery (60%) and colour of the fruits over the fully mature fruits. But upon ripening the fruits under room temperature, the average fruit weight reduced to 3.3g in red ripe stage. Chemical constituents in the fruit in both stages revealed that fully mature fruit is superior to red ripe fruit in case of fibre, vitamin C, acidity, and minerals like calcium, iron and phosphorus where as red ripe fruit is rich in β-carotene when compared to fully mature fruits. Moisture, total sugar, TSS and reducing sugar were also found to be high in red ripe fruits. Regarding the organoleptic qualities of the products during storage, the overall acceptability of the pickle decreased significantly between the initial and 3rd month of storage and then did not vary much till the 6th month. The acceptability of West Indian cherry preserve improved with storage period with high scores for flavour, texture and taste. The acceptability of West Indian cherry squash was very high initially, but due to changes in qualities such as appearance, colour, consistency and taste in storage the overall acceptability was decreased. The overall acceptability of West Indian cherry sauce was also found to be highly acceptable during the initial period and later decreased as the storage period increased. The major chemical constituents analysed in the products developed from the West Indian cherry were TSS, acidity, total sugar, β-carotene and vitamin C. During the storage period of six months TSS was found to increase and β-carotene and vitamin C were found to decrease in all the products by the end of six months. Acidity showed an increasing trend in pickle and sauce and a decreasing trend in preserve and squash during storage. The total sugar showed a decline in pickle and sauce and an increase in preserve and squash in storage. No microbial count was observed in pickle and squash through out the storage study but sauce and preserve showed microbial contamination from 3rd month onwards. All the products developed in the present study confirmed with FPO specifications. All the products showed a BC ratio of above one and among the products sauce showed the highest BC ratio followed by pickle, squash and preserve. The results of the above study revealed that compared to other processed products West Indian cherry products have better retention of vitamin C. The maximum retention of vitamin C was found in squash (288mg/100g) among the products prepared from red ripe fruits and with fully mature fruits pickle retained maximum of Vitamin C (408.39mg/100g). Usually the retention of Vitamin C in processed fruit products is very low where as in West Indian cherry products the retention of the Vitamin C was found to be fairly high even after processing and storage. The study highlighted the significance of processed West Indian cherry products as a solution for the increased consumer demand for nutritious, delicately flavoured and economical fruit products.
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