MANUFACTURE OF MIXED JAMS USING NATURAL SOURCES OF POWERFUL ANTIOXIDANTS AND IRON

Abstract

This investigation aims to manufacture some mixed jams enriched with antioxidants and iron by using acerola and tomato as source of powerful antioxidants to reduce trivalent of iron to divalent which favors its bioavailability in human body. Acerola and tomatoes were added to mixes containing figs, dates, apricot and strawberry and the final mixes were supplemented with (5gm/100gm) spirulina algae as a natural source of iron. Also, these mixes were fortified with (3mg Fe/100gm) ferrous gluconate. The carbohydrate content of ranged from 63.13 to 66.41 g/100 g for mixes containing 50% date and 50% apricot jams, respectively, while, the ash content ranged between 0.25g/100 g to 0.74 g/100 g for mixed jam containing 50% strawberry and date. Mixed jam containing 50% strawberries had highest amount of total phenolics (640.32 mg GAE/100 g). On the other hand, mixed jam containing 50% fig recorded the lowest content of total phenolics (281.03 mg GAE/100 g). Ascorbic acid of mixed jams was in the range of 83.07 to 126.52 mg /100 g. Meanwhile, the highest content of total carotenoids showed with apricot mix jam (71.18 mg /100 g) and mix jam containing fig recorded the lowest content (48.37 mg /100 g). Consequentially, the highest inhibition percent of antioxidant activity was (78.30%) for mix jam containing strawberry). The protein content of dried spirulina algae was 61.48%), while, the total carbohydrate, total lipids and ash content were 19.09, 4.63 and 6.78%, respectively. Also, the total carotenoids were 469.13 mg /100gm. On the other hand, spirulina algae had high content of iron (34.07 mg /100gm). Twenty-three phenolic compounds were identified for all tested mix jams namely protocatechuic, chlorogenic, catechin and other compounds; these phenolic compounds are interesting owing to their health benefits. Finally, mixed jams in our study had high content of iron as a result of adding spirulina algae and ferrous gluconate. The date mix jam had high content of iron (6.21mg /100gm) apricot mix jam was low iron content (5.67mg /100gm).