ABSTRACT
Fruit ripening is an unfolding of a series of genetically-programmed modifications and tend to be highly orchestrated irrevocable phenomenon mediated by ethylene. Phytohormone ethylene also leads to over-ripening, senescence, loss of texture, microbial attack, reduced post-harvest life and other associated problems during storage and transportation of fruits. Its harmful impacts on fresh fruits, vegetables, and ornamentals result in substantial product losses even up to 80%. Curbing of this inevitable menace is therefore need of the hour. Accrual of ethylene in packaging system should fundamentally be ducked to extend the shelf-life and uphold an adequate superiority of perishables in visual and organoleptic terms. The current review discusses about properties, factors affecting and impact of ethylene, intimidation of its impact at gene vis-à-vis activity level using gene-modification/inhibition techniques, chemical/physical in conjunction with other suitable approaches. It also entails the most commercially cultivated approaches worldwide viz. KMnO4-based oxidation together with adsorption-based scrubbing of ethylene in thorough details. Future ethylene removal strategies should focus on systematic evaluation of KMnO4-based scavenging, exploring the mechanism of adsorption, adsorbent(s) behavior in the presence of other gases and their partial pressures, volatiles, temperature, relative humidity, development of hydrophobic adsorbents to turn-up under high RH, regeneration of adsorbent by desorption, improvement in photocatalytic oxidation etc. and further improvements thereof. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s13197-023-05777-1.
ABSTRACT
Aonla, due to its astringency, is converted into various processed products. Candy is the most popular of among them. Commercially available aonla candies in India are hard in texture. However, soft textured candies are preferred more over harder ones. Hence, study was undertaken to produce soft textured candies. Whole fruits and fruit segments were blanched in boiled water, frozen in domestic freezer for 12 h and thawed at room temperature (15-20 °C). Fresh, blanched, frozen and thawed samples were subjected to textural analysis. Some of the blanched and thawed segments were used to prepare candies and subjected to textural analysis. Results indicated that force-deformation behavior of all samples differed significantly. Fresh, blanched, thawed and frozen segments required 14.39, 0.84, 0.22 and 0.18 N force, respectively to compress them till 1 mm deformation. Similarly, peak force (5 mm deformation) was maximum in fresh segments (172.25 N) followed by blanched (8.77 N), frozen (1.06 N) and thawed (0.85 N). Peak force values for control and soft candies were 13.14 and 6.86 N, respectively. Based on results, it was found that freeze-thaw treatment significantly reduced the firmness of segments and produced soft textured candies.
ABSTRACT
Enzymatic liquefaction (EL) ensures fast extraction and enhanced recovery of bioactives from red capsicum along with reduced degradation of these compounds remained in the pomace. Hence, red capsicum pomace obtained as byproduct after EL was freeze dried to produce capsicum pomace powder (CP). CP had almost 80% of bioactives (total carotenoids 91.23 ± 2.35 mg/100 g) and antioxidant activity (DPPH 1.61 ± 0.12 µmol TE/g) compared to fresh pomace. CP was further used to develop muffins. Different concentrations (2-10%) of CP were mixed in wheat flour for preparation of muffins. Wheat flour was fortified with CP at different levels (2-10%) and subsequently, effect of CP fortification on height, texture, bioactives and sensory quality of muffins was observed. CP fortification improved the quality in terms of color, flavor and texture. During storage, hardness values (34.42-32.56 N) showed decreasing trend with increase in CP content. Overall, 6% CP fortification was found most acceptable without causing significant change in porosity and crust uniformity of fortified muffins. Thus, present study demonstrated that fortification of muffins with 6% CP as functional ingredient offers an opportunity to develop quality muffins with enhanced antioxidant activity (DPPH 13.04 ± 0.02 µmol TE/g) and total carotenoids (3.46 ± 2.41 mg/100 g).
ABSTRACT
Zizyphus (Indian ber) is an excellent source of several phenolic compounds. The effect of two cell wall degrading enzymes, namely pectinase and viscozyme, on the nutraceutical composition of Zizyphus juice was investigated in the present study. Enzyme assisted processing significantly (P < 0.05) improved the juice yield, total soluble solids, total phenolics and total antioxidant activity (AOX). There was significant increase in recovery of antioxidants, to the tune of 70.51%, 66%, and 45% respectively in ascorbic acid, total phenolics and total flavonoids through viscozyme. The in-vitro total AOX of juice extracted via enzyme-assisted processing was 20.9 and 15.59 µmol Trolox/ml in ferric-reducing antioxidant power and cupric-reducing antioxidant capacity assays, respectively. There was 41% increase in AOX of juice extracted with enzyme over straight pressed juice. Results indicate that enzyme-assisted processing can significantly improve the functional properties of the Zizyphus juice.
