Chemical constituents and sensory acceptability of ready to serve seabuckthorn beverage

Seabuckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides spp. turkestanica), locally known as Chharma and a member of family Elaeagnaceae, grows naturally under quite adverse climatic conditions prevailing in high altitude areas of Himachal Pradesh. the present paper describes the processing of seabuckthorn fruit juice into ready-to-serve beverage and changes in keeping quality of the beverage upon storage for 120 days. Seabuckthorn berries were collected from Lahaul valley during September month, when fruits were fully ripe. Pulp was extracted from the berries with the help of fruit pulper. ready to serve beverage was prepared using variable proportions of pulp and sugar in the beverage formulations. The ascorbic acid content increased significantly (P ≤ 0.05) with the increase in the proportion of pulp and decreased with the enhancement of storage period. Whereas, an increasing trend was observed in reducing sugars with the increasing pulp and sugar content as well as storage duration. Beverage formulation containing 10 and 13 per cent, 12.5 and 13 per cent and 15 and 15 per cent pulp and sugar were rated most acceptable by a panel of judges on a nine point hedonic scale. It was concluded that value addition to seabuckthorn can promote commercial market for this wild fruit, which has remained neglected and underutilized in Himachal Pradesh.