Effect of recipe treatment and storage period on biochemical composition of custard apple (Annona squamosa L.) nectar

Custard apple is climacteric fruit which is highly perishable in nature and mostly utilized for fresh market. The shorter shelf life makes it's marketability difficult and even farmers are unable to fetch the higher price of their valuable produce. Thus, the present investigation was designed to determine the effect of storage period on nectar of custard apple and to find out the best recipe beverages having a maximum shelf life. The experimental material consists of well ripened fruits of local cultivars of Madhya Pradesh with five recipe treatments and four replications under completely randomized design in factorial arrangement. The nectar prepared from different recipe treatments were analyzed periodically at 15 days interval up to 60 days for their biochemical changes. The acidity, TSS, total sugar, reducing sugar showed an increasing trend while non-reducing sugar and TSS: acid shows decreasing trend with increasing the storage period upto 60 days under ambient conditions. Among different recipes tried in this investigation, the nectar prepared with the treatment T4 (20% pulp, 0.3% acidity, 25% TSS) contains highest acidity, T.S.S., total and reducing sugar with moderate amount of Nonreducing sugar and TSS: acid ratio, thus found to be suitable for preparation of Custard apple nectar at commercial scale.