Scope of income enhancement of rural youth through home scale processing of Indian gooseberry (Aonla) - An overview

Aonla is highly nutritious and regarded as fruit for medicinal value in ayurvedics. A tannin containing gallic acid, ellagic acid and glucose in its molecule which is naturally present in the fruit, prevents or retards the oxidation of vitamin-C and renders it a valuable antiscorbutic in the fresh as well as in the dried processed condition. The vitamin-C value of aonla increases further when the juice is extracted from this fruit. The dehydrated fruit provided 2423 to 3470 mg of vitamin-C per 100 grams. Even when it is dried in shade and then turned into powder, it retains as much as 1780 to 2660 mg of vitamin-C. Many medicinal virtues have been attributed to aonla. Thus, aonla will prove to be an important fruit not only for waste lands but also for human health in one or the other way.