Nutritional, phytochemicals, and sensory analysis of Lapsi (Choerospondias axillaris) fruit leather

Abstract

ABSTRACT Fruit leathers, which are also known as fruit rolls, are dehydrated fruit-based products. Despite the popularity of Lapsi fruit leather, its production is limited to home-scale industries, which lack uniformity in quality. Moreover, scientific research to address this issue is very limited. Therefore, in this study, Lapsi fruit leather was prepared and its nutritional, phytochemicals, and sensorial properties were studied. The fruit pulp and sugar were mixed at the proportion of 50:50, 80:20, 57.5:42.5, 72.5:27.5, and 65:35 to prepare leather and labeled as samples A, B, C, D, and E, respectively. The drying behavior was studied at 55°C in cabinet dryer. Among these samples, B had higher amount of crude fat (0.88 g/100 g sample), crude protein (3.87 g/100 g sample), crude fiber (10.95 g/100 g sample), and total ash (1.09 g/100 g sample); however, carbohydrate and energy value was significantly higher in sample A with the value of 83.21 g and 284 kcal per 100 g leather, respectively. Similarly, sample B was rich in phytochemicals containing 67 mg vitamin C/, total polyphenol of 88.33 mg GAE/g dry extract, total flavonoid of 37.57 mg QE/g dry extract and DPPH inhibition activity of 43.17%. Sample A was dried in 8.83 h, which had moisture diffusivity of 8.723 × 10−7 m2/sec, and sample B was dried in 7.33 h, which had moisture diffusivity of 10.0 × 10−7 m2/sec. Though there was significant effect (p < .05) on the taste, flavor, texture, and overall acceptability except for color of the product, sample C was preferred by the panelists. Thus, nutritionally rich and underutilized lapsi fruit can be processed into fruit leather with high consumer acceptance.