Malav, Gupta and Nagar

INTRODUCTION

Orange specially, the sweet orange (Citrus sinensis L.) is a deciduous tree which belongs to family Rutaceae. Sweet orange is the most commonly grown fruit in the world and widely cultivated in tropical and sub-tropical climates for the delicious sweet fruit which is peeled or cut (to avoid the bitter rind) and eaten whole, or proc- essed to extract orange juice, ready-to-serve (RTS) bev- erages, cordial, nectar etc. In India, orange has been cul- tivated in 2,85,000 ha area with an annual production of 20.84 lakh tonnes (Anonymons, 2012). Major orange producing states are Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Assam and Tripura. In some parts of Madhya Pradesh, particularly in Mandsaur, Nee- much, Chhindwada, Betul, Ujjain and Shajapur districts, orange is being cultivated on large scale. The area under orange in Madhya Pradesh is about 38,300 ha and pro- duction is 6,77,800 MT with productivity of 17.7 MT/ha (Anonymons, 2012).

Orange is quite popular as it has a greater variety of beverage. It is also used for industrial and medicinal pur- pose due to its attractive colour, distinctive flavour and being rich source of vitamin ‘C’, vitamin ‘B’, ß-carotene, calcium and phosphorus. Orange juice turns bitter after extraction due to conversion of a chemical compound limonite-a-ring lactone (non-bitter) to limonin (bit- ter compound) during storage (Premi et al., 1994) and makes the processing of this fruit limited. For improving the taste, aroma, palatability, nutritive value and reduc- ing bitterness orange juice was blended with some other highly nutritive fruit juices namely pomegranate and aonla juice with spice extracts like ginger. The utiliza- tion of these fruits for preparation of various processed product become limited, despite their high nutritional qualities. The blending of two or more fruit juices with spices extract for preparation of nutritive RTS beverages is thought to be a convenient and economic alternative for utilization of these fruits. Sandhu and Sindhu (1992), Saxena et al. (1996), Attri et al. (1998), Langthasa (1999), Deka (2000), Deka and Sethi (2001) reported that two or more fruits juice/pulp may be blended in various pro- portions for the preparation of nectar, RTS beverages etc. the blending of juice may also improve aroma, taste and nutrients of beverages.

The present study was carried out to develop value added blended RTS beverages of orange with aonla, pomegranate and ginger. The production of new product is necessary for the survival and growth of the process- ing industry, to meet new taste and demand in home as well as in export market. Hence, there is an urgent need to develop some suitable technologies for the prepara- tion of orange based blended RTS beverages which are economical and can be made available to a large popula-

tion. In India soft drink have a good demand throughout the year traditionally, our country has been well known for offering syrup or sharbat.

Looking to the demand of natural beverages, there is great scope for the preparation of juices and other fruit based beverages. RTS is a type of fruit beverage contain- ing at least fruit juice (10%), total soluble solids (10%) and acidity (0.3%) (F.P.O.1955). RTS can be prepared from the clarified juice of orange. However, the problem encountered during processing is development of bitter- ness. The juice of two or more juices helps in utilization of astringent and too acidic fruits like lime, sour palm, sour cherry, etc. these fruits and spice are also famous for excellent quality with pleasant flavor, rich in sugar, vitamin-C and minerals. Therefore, keeping the above facts in view the studies on bio-chemical composition of orange based blended ready-to-serve (RTS) beverages were conducted.

MATERIAL AND METHODS

The study was carried out in the Department of Post Harvest Management, K.N.K. ollege of Horticulture, Mandsaur (M.P.) during the year 2011-2012. Fresh, fully mature and uniform fruits of orange were taken from the farmer’s orchard and used for experimentation. The immature, brownish, damaged and off type fruits were discarded. Whereas fruits of, pomegranate, aonla and ginger were purchased from local market. Fruits free from mechanical injury and disease were selected for the study. The selected fruits were washed with tap water to remove dirt and dust particles adhering to the surface of fruit and were allowed to surface dry. Their individual juice was extracted by spiral coil type juice extractor machine and blended as per recipe treatment.

The experiment comprised of nine treatment com- binations consisting four level of juice (orange juice, pomegranate juice, aonla juice and ginger juice) and two level of preservative (750 ppm + 500 ppm KMS). The details of various treatment combinations are presented in Table 1.

PREPARATION OF ORANGE BASED BLENDED READY-TO-SERVE (RTS) BEVERAGES

After extraction of juice from all the fruits its total solu- ble solids (TSS) and acidity were measured. Then accord- ing to different recipe treatment, the quantity of juice, sugar, citric acid, preservative (KMS) and water were calculated. For the preparation of orange based blended RTS beverage of different recipe, syrup of sugar, water and citric acid was prepared. The prepared orange based blended RTS beverage filled in clean sterilized plas-

tics bottle of 200 ml capacity. Prepared orange based blended RTS beverage bottle were stored in dries place at ambient temperature (Room temperature).The Flow chart for the preparation of orange based blended RTS bever- ages is shown in Plate 1.

The observation on different chemical characteristics of orange based RTS beverage viz., TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total sugars and pH were recorded at an interval of 30 days up to 90 days of storage. The data were analyzed statistically through ANOVA using CRD factorial design.

PLATE 1: Flow chart for the preparation of orange based blended RTS beverages. (Source: Larmond, 1982 and Nitu et al., 2010).

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

The TSS content of orange based blended RTS bever- ages increased apparently during storage, which is pos- sibly due to hydrolysis of polysaccharides (starch) into monosaccharide (sugars) and concentration of orange based blended RTS beverage due to dehydration. The minimum rate of increase in TSS during storage period is desirable for good quality RTS. On the 90th day of stor- age the minimum changes in TSS content was observed in T-4 (1.04°Brix) treatment whereas maximum in T-3 (3.22°Brix) treatment. The treatments found to be non-significant at the end period (90th day) of storage (Table 2). A similar increase in TSS content with the increase in storage period was observed in juice of mandarin, sweet orange and lemon (Mehta and Bajaj, 1983) and by Palainswamy and Muthukrishanan (1974) in lemon juice, Godara and Pareek (1985) reported an increasing trend in date palm RTS beverage and guava beverage (Baramanray et al., 1995 and Pandy, 2004).

The changes in acidity of RTS beverage during stor- age as affected by recipe and treatment combinations during storage. The decrease in acidity observed dur- ing storage of orange based blended RTS beverages could be attributed to the chemical interaction between the organic constituents of orange based blended RTS beverage affected by the temperature and action of enzymes. At the end of storage period the maximum acidity was observed in T-0 (0.60%) treatment whereas minimum in T-8 (0.43%) treatment (Table 2). Similar findings were also observed by Negy and Manjrekar (1976) in apple cider, Kannan and Thirumran (2004) in jamun RTS, squash, syrup and jam, Bansal and Dhawan (1993) in lemone juice, Verma and Gehlot (2007) in bael RTS, Reddy and Chikkasubbanna (2008) in lime blended aonla squash during storage of 90 days.

Ascorbic acid content of orange based blended RTS beverages decreased with the advancement of storage

period because the ascorbic acid is very sensitive to oxi- dation. This loss of ascorbic acid might be due to the oxidation or irreversible conversion of L-ascorbic acid into dihydro ascorbic acid oxidase (ascorbinase) because of heat processing and the presence of air at the head space of plastics bottles during storage, such losses can minimized by eliminating air during bottle filling and handling as suggested by Johnson and Toledo (1975). Different recipe and treatment combinations were also found significant effect on ascorbic acid content of orange based blended RTS beverage during the entire storage period. At the end of storage period (90th day),

the maximum ascorbic acid content was observed in T-2 (36.77mg/100ml) treatment whereas minimum in T-8(10.58mg/100ml) treatment (Table 2).

Loss in ascorbic acid content was also observed by Smooth and Negy (1980) in grape fruit juice, Sharma et al. (1981) in kinnow mandarin juice stored at room temperature over a period of 28 weeks compared to low temperature, Rabbani (1992) in mango beverages, Pandy and Singh (1999) in guava beverage, Kaul and Saini (2000) in kagzi lime juice during storage.

The increase in reducing sugars with the advance- ment of storage period in all the treatments could be

Malav, Gupta and Nagar

attributed to gradual inversion of non-reducing sugars into reducing sugars in acidic medium. The reducing sugars content increased gradually with the increas- ing period of storage. On the 90th day of storage highest reducing sugars was recorded in T-4 (8.41%) treatment whereas lowest reducing sugars was recorded in T-0 (8.24%) treatment (Table 2). These results are in confir- mation with findings of Ranote and Bains (1982) in kin- now juice, Narayanan et al. (2002) in clarified banana RTS, Murtaza et al. (2004) in strawberry drinks stored at different temperatures.

The results showed a progressive and marked increase in total sugars content throughout the storage period. The increase in total sugars might be due to the hydrolysis of polysaccharides like pectin, cellulose, starch, etc. and its conversion into simple sugars. The total sugars content increased significantly upto 60th day and found non- significant at end of storage. On the 90th days of stor- age highest total sugars were recorded in T-4 (10.83%) treatment whereas lowest total sugars were recorded in T-7 (10.55%) treatment (Table 2). These results are in conformity with the results obtained by Roy and Singh (1979) in juice of mandarin and Narayanan et al. (2002) in enzyme clarified banana RTS. Sharma et al. (2004) found increase in total sugars during storage in foam mat dried hill lemon juice powder. Similar, results have also been reported by Poonam and Tandon (2007) in guava-aonla blended RTS beverage and by Verma and Gehlot (2007) in bael RTS.

The result indicated that the pH of orange based blended RTS beverages decreased with increased period of storage in all the treatments which might have resulted due to corresponding decrease in acidity. The treatment had a significant effect on pH content of orange based blended RTS beverage during entire period of storage. At the end of storage period the maximum pH content was observed in T-4 (3.61) treatment whereas minimum was observed in T-0 (2.93) treatment (Table 2). Changes in pH during storage was observed by Khurdiya (1980) in dried ber juice, Shrestha and hatia (1982) in apple juice, Rao and Krishnamurthy (1982) tomato crush, Doodnath and Badriel (2000) in watermelon nectars, Krishnaveni et al., (2001) in jack fruit RTS beverage and Murtaza et al., (2004) in strawberry drinks.

CONCLUSION

Data pertaining to the effect of recipe and storage period on bio-chemical changes of orange based blended RTS beverages (TSS, acidity, ascorbic acid, reducing sugars, non-reducing sugars, total sugars and pH) during stor- age were recorded at 30 days interval upto 90th day. On the basis of results obtained in the study it can be con-

cluded that most of the bio-chemical characteristics of orange based blended RTS beverages were significantly influenced by different recipe treatments and storage period. The treatment T-4 (Orange-pomegranate-ginger (86:10:4) with 750 ppm KMS) was found best with regard to most of the chemical characteristics viz., TSS, reduc- ing sugars, total sugars and pH throughout the storage period upto 90th days.

REFERENCES

Anonymons. (2012). National Horticulture Board, Database.

Attri, B.L., Lal, B.B., Joshi, V.K. (1998). Physico-chemical characteris- tics, sensory quality and storage behaviour of sand pear juice blended with temperate fruit juice/pulp. Indian Food Packer, 52(6):36-42.

Bansal, Murlidhar and Dhawan, S.S. (1993). Preservation and keeping quality of bhadari lemon (Citrus limon L.) juice. Haryana Journal of Horticulture Science, 22(3):188-194.

Baramanray, A., Gupta, O.P. and Dhawan, S.S. (1995). Evaluation of guava (Psidium guajava L.) hybrid for making nectar. Haryana Journal of Horticultureal Sciences, 24(2):102-109.

Deka, B. . (2000). Preparation and storage of mixed fruit juice spiced beverage. Ph.D. Thesis, IARI, New Delhi.

Deka, B. . and Sethi, Vijay (2001). Preparation of mixed fruit juice spiced TS beverages. Indian Food Packer, 55:58-59.

Doodnath, L. and Badriel, N. (2000). Processing and quality evaluation of ready-to-serve watermelon nectars. Indian Food Packer, 54:71-78.

F.P.O. (1995). The Food Product Order. Central Govt. Commodities Act.

Godara, .K. and Pareek, O.P. (1985). Effect of temperature on storage life of ready to serve date-juice beverage. Indian Journal of Agricul- tural Science, 55(5):347-349.

Johnson, .L. and Toledo, .T. (1975). Storage stability of 55 obrix orange juice concentrate aseptically packed in plastic and glass bottle containers. Journal of Food Science, 40(2):433.

Kannan, S. and Thirumaran, A.S. (2004). Studies on the storage life of jamun fruit products. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 41: 186-188.

Kaul, R.K. and Saini, S.P.S. (2000). Compositional changes during stor- age and concentration of Kagzi lime juice. Journal of Scientific and Industrial Research, 59:395-399.

Khurdiya, D.S. (1980). A new beverage from dried ber. Journal of Food Science and Technology, 17(3):158-159.

Krishnaveni, A., Manimegalal, G. and Saravana Kumar, R. (2001).stor- age stability of jack fruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus) RTS beverage. Journal of Food Science Technol, 38(6):601-602.

Langthasa, S. (1999). Processing and preservation of apple pulp. Ph.D. Thesis, IARI, New Delhi.

Larmond, E. (1982). Laboratory methods for sensory evaluation of food. I.A.R.I. New Delhi.

Mehta, U. and Bajaj, S. (1983). Effect of storage and methods of preser- vation on the physico-chemical characteristics of citrus juices. Indian Food Packer, 37(4):42-51.

Murtaza, M.A., Nuzhat, Huma., Juanid, Javaid., Shabbor, M.A., Din, G.M.U. and Shahid, Mohamood. (2004). Studies on stability of straw- berry drink stored at different temperatures. International journal of Agriculture and Biology, 6(1): 58-60.

Narayanan, C.K., Sathiamoorthy, S. and Mary, A.E. (2002). Studies on ready-to-serve beverage from enzyme clarified banana juice. Progres- sive Horticulture, 34(1):65-71.

Negy, H.P.P.S. and Manjrekar, S.P. (1976). Studies on the preparation of cider from North Indian Apple II. Storage studies. Indian Food Packer, 30(1):12.

Nitu, Masuma-A-Rabbane., Khalil, Md. Ibrahim., Hussain, Md. Shakhawa.t, Islam, Md. Shamsul., Hossain, Md. Afzal and Alam, N. (2010). Studies on the biochemical composition of commercial citrus juices and laboratory prepared pineapple juices. European Journal of Biological Science, 2(1):9-12.

Palainswamy, K.P. and Muthukrishnan, C.R. (1974). Studies the phys- ico-chemical characters of lemon juice squashes during storage. Indian Food Packer, 28(4):37-41.

Pandy, A.K. (2004). Study about the storage stability of guava bever- ages. Progressive Horticulture, 36(1):142-145.

Pandy, A.K. and Singh, I.S. (1999). Studies on preparation and preser- vation of guava ready-to-serve beverages. Indian Journal of Horticul- ture, 56(2):130-132.

Premi, B.R., Lal, B.B. and Joshi, V.K. (1994). Distribution pattern of bit- tering principle in kinnow. J. Food Sci. Technol, 31:140-141.

Rabbani, A. (1992). Studies on post harvest technology of sucking mangoes. Ph.D. Thesis. N.D. University of Agriculture and Technology. Faizabad. (U.P.)

Ranote, P.S. and Bains, G.S. (1982). Juice of kinnow fruit. Indian Food Packer, 33(5):23-33.

Rao, K.P.G. and Krishnamurthy, S. (1982). Preservation of tomato as crush and juice concentrate. Indian Food Packer, 36(6):55-62.

Malav, Gupta and Nagar

Reddy, A. Harshvardhan and Chikkasubbannna, V. (2008). Standardi- zation of recipe and storage behavior of lime blended amla squash. The Asian Journal of Horticulture, 2:203-207.

Roy, S.K. and Sing, R.N. (1979). Studies on utilization of bael fruit (Aegle marmelos correa) for processing : iv. Storage studies of bael fruit products. Indian Food Packer, 33(6):3-9.

Sandhu, K.S. and Sindhu, J.S. (1992). Studies on the development of multi fruit ready-to-serve beverage. J. Plant Sci. Res., 8:87-89.

Saxena, A.K. Teotia, M.S. and Berry, S.K. (1996). Studies on the devel- opment of grape-mango and grape-pineapple beverage blends. Indian Food Packer, 50:26-29.

Sharma, S.K., Sharma, P.C. and Kaushal, B.B.L. (2004). Storage studies of foam mat dried hill lemon (Citrus pseudolemon Tan.) juice powder. Indian Journal of Food Science and Technology, Mys- ore, 41(1):9-13.

Sharma, U., Bains, G.S. and Kirpal Singh, K. (1981). Studies on the processing of kinnow mandarin juice. Punjab Horticulture Journal, 21: 32-45.

Shrestha, M.K. and Bhatia, B.S. (1982). Apple juice physico-chem- ical characteristics and storage study. Indain Food Packer, 35(3): 53-60.

Smooth, J.M. and Negy, S. (1980). Effect of storage temperature and duration on total vitamin- content of canned single-strength grapefruit juice. Journal of Agricultural Food Chemistry, 28(2): 417-421.

esearch on Crops, 8(3):745-748.