Development of fruit leather from indigenous Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) fruit
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Date
2014-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The objective of this research was to develop fruit leathers from indigenous tamarind fruit tree.
Tamarind fruits were collected, sorted, washed, grinded, soaked in water and then pulped. Flavoring
ingredient that is: sucrose and grounded ginger and lemon juice as color preservatives were added to the
tamarind. Tamarind puree was spread on trays and dried in electric oven drier to get thin sheets of
leathers. The products were evaluated for physicochemical properties, proximate element composition,
vitamin c content, mineral element (Ca, K and Na) and sensory properties.
Proximate analysis result of the fruit leathers showed that they contained low protein (2.23-3.09%), fat
(1.210-2.146%) and ash (3.003-3.536%) content. whereas, it consisted mainly of carbohydrates (69.193-
76.406%) and crude fiber (3.05-4.71%). The total moisture content (18.316-14.100%) of fruit leathers
were low and its titratable acidity (7.645-7.883% citric acid) and pH (3.253-3.390) were high, suggesting
that the products would have acceptable storage characteristics and would be microbiologically safe.
The vitamin C content of the fruit leathers were found to be in the range between 21.656 and
17.520mg/100g. The mineral contents of the products were ranged between for: Ca 73.111 and
196.39mg/100g, K 595.100 and 731.667mg/100g and Na 102.178 and 125.949 mg/100g. The result of
sensory analysis using customer preference test showed that the fruit leathers were well accepted. The
two most liked fruit leathers with an overall acceptability of 8.6 and 8.5 (liked very much) were fruit
leather dried at 800C and 700C for 8hr respectively. The lowest score was achieved by fruit leathers dried
at 900C. In general, significant difference (P < 0.05) has been observed among tamarind leathers in terms
of pH, titratable acidity, vitamin C content, proximate element composition, mineral element
concentration and sensory attributes. The investigation indicated that, Tamarind leather dried at 800C
for 8hr showed the best quality performance among the rest.
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Keywords
Titratable Acidity, Vitamin C Content, Proximate Element Composition