PHYSICOCHEMICAL, MICROBIOLOGICAL AND SENSORY CHARACTERISTICS OF PERSIMMON FRUIT LEATHER

Abstract

Persimmon fruit leather is a dehydrated persimmon product, which was consumed asa chewy for preparation of valuable nutritive dessert. The aim of the present study was to utilizepersimmon puree in the preparation of persimmon leather and study physicochemical, microbiologicaland sensory characteristics of persimmon leather. Persimmon fruit leather was prepared by drying amixture of persimmon puree treated with hot break by steam (HST), mango puree, glucose syrup,sugar, pectin, citric acid and starch. Dehydration was performed in microwave at 55oC for 30 min.Leather was also prepared from persimmon leather using the same ingredients except starch. Resultsshowed that texture properties of leather containing starch was higher than leather without starch.Moisture, ash content and acidity were close to each other in persimmon leathers with or withoutstarch. TSS content in persimmon leather product samples were 78.89o Brix and 79.14o Brix, whiletotal and reducing sugars of leather without starch recorded 83.26 and 45.08%, respectively.Persimmon leather with starch contained total and reducing sugars 81.48 and 44.90%, respectively.Ascorbic acid retained in persimmon leather containing starch was slightly higher (14.26 mg/100g)compared to leather without starch (13.52 mg/100g). Browning index increased when adding starch tothe formula. Alcohol insoluble solids (AIS) and crude fibers content were 12.87 and 0.98% inpersimmon leather with starch, respectively, whereas the respective values in persimmon leatherwithout starch were 8.73 and 0.82%. Antioxidant activity and carotenoids contents were higher inpersimmon leather containing starch than that without starch. Polyphenols, flavonoids and tanninscontents were lower in persimmon leather containing starch than leather without starch. Pyrogallol andE-vanillic were the dominant compounds in both of persimmon leathers with and without starch.Vitamin K represented the highest content among all studied vitamins in persimmon leather. Lightnessvalue (L*) was 33.81 in persimmon leather containing starch which is higher than lightness value (L*)in persimmon leather without starch (23.72). The values of (a*) and (b*) were higher in persimmonleather without starch (12.71 and 12.97, respectively) than in persimmon leather containing starch(8.10 and 8.16, respectively). Total bacteria count was 110 CFU/g in just first dilution in persimmonleather with starch but it was not detected in other dilutions, total count bacteria was not detected inpersimmon leather without starch in all dilutions. Molds and yeasts and spore forming bacteria countswere not detected in all persimmon leather samples.