INFLUENCE OF LEAF AGE ON GEL RECOVERY AND HEATING ON QUALITY AND SHELF LIFE OF ALOE (Aloe barbadensis Miller)

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Date
2010-09
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ANDHRA PRADESH HORTICULTURAL UNIVERSITY
Abstract
Aloe is a succulent, sessile, perennial herb. It is as old as human civilization. It was introduced for ornamental and medicinal purposes. Aloe is widely recognized for containing a number of unique organic phytochemicals in its leaves that favour human health. In the most recent years, many studies have been conducted to evaluate its role to control or cure many human diseases. An experiment was conducted to study the “Influence of leaf age on gel recovery and heating on quality, shelf life of Aloe gel”. The treatments consisted of three accessions of Aloe viz., yellow flowering accession-1, yellow flowering accession-2 and orange flowering accession-3 and three leaf maturity ages i.e., 10 months, 12 months and 14 months. The treatments are replicated thrice in Completely Randomized Design with factorial concept. In all the three accessions of Aloe, 14 months leaf age has performed better regarding all the physical and physico-chemical parameters like leaf size (553.45 cm2), leaf weight (480.22 g), gel weight (321.56 g), pH (4.79), TSS (0.78°brix), acidity (0.16%), reducing sugars (0.050%), total sugars (1.84%), antioxidants (64.08% inhibition of peroxidation) and moisture content (90.23%) of gel. The best leaf age in the first experiment viz., 14 months leaf age was selected for conducting the second experiment in all the three accessions. The gel obtained from the 14 months aged leaves of three accessions was subjected to heating at three temperatures i.e., 50°C, 75°C and 100°C. The treatment samples were analysed at every 10 days during storage for the study of quality parameters, storage stability and microbial count in the gel. During storage, increase in pH, reducing sugars and total sugars was observed in all the treatments while the acidity, TSS, non-reducing sugars, moisture and antioxidants were decreased at all storage intervals up to 30th day of storage. Yellow flowering accession-1 heated at 75°C has recorded better results in pH (4.67), acidity (0.23%), TSS (1.30°brix) and antioxidant activity while the highest reducing sugars (1.853%), total sugars (2.55%) and moisture content (91.07%) was recorded by yellow flowering accession-1 heated at 50°C followed by the same accession heated at 75°C. Increase in microbial growth was observed with the storage period in all three accessions at all the temperatures. But, comparatively less microbial growth was observed when the Aloe gel was heated at 75°C. The Aloe gel was stored up to 30 days when heated at 75°C with less microbial count while they could be stored up to 20 days at both 50°C and 100°C temperatures in three accessions with less microbial count. The overall results indicated that yellow flowering accession-1 with 14 months leaf age heated at 75°C has showed good quality and storage stability of Aloe gel followed by yellow flowering accession-2 and orange flowering accession-3.
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developmental stages, aloe, sugar, storage, fruits, reducing sugars, acidity, polysaccharides, antioxidants, byproducts
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