Studies on osmotic dehydration of aonla (Emblica officinalis G)

Aonla (Emblica officinalis G) is an important arid zone fruit crop. It is probably the only fruit to fill the gap of astringent food recommended by Ayurvedic system of medicine for a balanced diet and sound health. Fruit is a very rich source of ascorbic acid. The highly acidic nature of its fruits and limited availability makes it unsuitable for fresh consumption. Various products like Murabba, candy, pickle, jam, sauce, squash, syrup etc are prepared from this fruit. But available information on preparation of dehydrated sweetened aonla segments is limited and during osmodehydration of aonla segments there is a change in biochemical composition of fruit. Hence there was a need to study and standardize a simple, economical and appropriate method for preparation of highly acceptable, good quality dehydrated sweetened aonla segments. With this view the present investigation was undertaken to study osmotic dehydration of aonla fruits using sugar as an osmotic agent during the year 2014–15 at postharvest technology laboratory, Horticultural College and Research Institute, Dr YSR Horticultural University, Venkataramannagudem, West Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh. The study was aimed at knowing the effect of syrup concentrations at 50, 60 and 70^oBrix with solution temperatures of 50, 60 and 70°C maintained initially and later the segments were kept in the solutions for about 24 hours of osmosis. The treatments recorded a range of moisture content (10.2713.67%), ascorbic acid (283.33–208.30 mg/100 g), titrable acidity (1.90–0.53%), total soluble solids (36.40–56.13^oBrix), total sugars (41.56–65.04%) and total phenols (1230.00–410.00 mg/100 g) during storage period. Irrespective of the treatments, no microorganism was detected up to 120^th day of storage period. However steeping of segments in 70^oBrix sugar syrup at 70°C for 24 hours recorded superior nutritional and organoleptic quality.