Effect of blending traditional herbs on physico-chemical changes in bottle gourd nectar

The present investigation was carried out with the objective to study the changes in quality of bottle gourd based herbal nectar during storage period. Varied percentages of bottle gourd (75 to 100%), mint (5 to 20%), basil (5 to 20%) and lemon juice (5%) were blended to form nine treatment combination. Prepared nectar was packed in 250 ml glass bottles and stored under ambient conditions. Quality of nectar was assessed for physico-chemical changes at 30 days interval until 90 days. The highest mean L^* (48.34), a^* (-0.62) and b^* (18.86) values, total soluble solids (15.51°B), total sugars (12.93%) and reducing sugars (2.83%) were recorded in T₁ (control). Treatment T₉ (75:20:5::BGJ:BLJ:LJ) recorded maximum crude protein (1.07%), whereas maximum titratable acidity (0.487%) and ascorbic acid (12.41 mg/100 ml) were recorded in treatment T₅ (75:20:5::BGJ:MLJ:LJ).