Nutritional and Chemical Composition of Jackfruit Rind Flour

Abstract

Background: Jackfruit (Artocarpus heterophyllus Lam.) belongs to the family Moraceae.Two cultivars of jackfruit are popular in Kerala being “Koozha” and “Varikka” The rind of jackfruit is mostly thrown away or given to cattle. This issue has been addressed by processing the rind into flour and ascertaining its nutritional and chemical composition. Methods: Mature jackfruits-Raw and ripe (cv varikka and koozha) with optimum maturity indices were selected from the instructional farm, College of Agriculture, Vellayani. They were cleaned, cut and immersed in pre treatment media and subjected to drying. The dried product was milled and packed in laminated pouches. They were subjected to quality analysis using standard procedures. Result: The nutrient analysis of jackfruit rind flour showed significant differences among raw and ripened varikka and koozha rind flours. Raw Koozha jackfruit rind flour showed higher content of crude fiber (18 g/ 100 g) and dietary fiber (13.56 g/ 100 g). It had low content of carbohydrate (29 g/100 g) and fat (1.84 g/10 0 g). The chemical composition of raw koozha jackfruit rind flour had higher tannins (0.088 g/100 g). It also had higher content of polyphenols (2 g/100 g) that could be responsible for the enzymatic browning of rinds and had lower peroxide value (0.5 g/100 g), which could be the reason for better keeping quality of this rind type. Pectin content was found to be higher (27.5 g/100 g) in ripe varikka jackfruit rind flour.