Baddegama ST1*, Ranaweera KKDS2, Sarananda HS3, Wijesundera BLDLD1, De Silva RN1
1Fruit Research & Development Institute, Department of Agriculture, Sri Lanka.
2Department of Applied Science, University of Sri Jayewardenepura, Sri Lanka.
3Faculty of Agriculture and Plant Management, Wayamba University of Sri Lanka.
Abstract
The present experiment was conducted at the Fruit Research and Development Institute Horana, Sri Lanka, from 2020 to 2021 to
evaluate the proximate composition, antioxidant activity, ascorbic acid and total phenolic content of five underutilized fruits,
namely Namnam, Lovi, Roseapple, Pumello and Sapota using Association of Official Agricultural Chemists (AOAC) methods. The parameters
determined were moisture, crude fiber, crude fat, sugar, antioxidant activity, total phenolic content, titratable acidity, pH, total soluble
solids and ascorbic acid. Rose apple and Namnam fruits recorded the highest (91.47%) and the lowest (68.87%) moisture content, respectively.
The Pumello fruit exhibited the lowest fat, crude fiber, total sugar, non–reducing sugar and reducing sugar contents with the values of 0.01%,
1.33%, 005%, 0.03%, and 0.02%, respectively. Sapota reported the highest fat, total soluble solids and pH values of 1.33%, 16%, and 4.74%,
respectively. Roseapple recorded the highest crude fiber (5.59%) and the total sugar content (0.81%), while Lovi showed the lowest pH (2.29) and
highest titratable acid content (2.01%) Pumello had the highest ascorbic acid concentration, whereas Lovi had the lowest value. Pumello and Namnam
demonstrated the lowest IC50 value (0.03). Sapota and Roseapple had the highest (20.49) and lowest (2.16) total phenolic content. The study
emphasizes the diverse nutritional elements in these underutilized fruits, highlighting their potential as valuable sources of supplementary
nutrients.
Keywords:
Antioxidant activity, Ascorbic acid, Moisture, Phenolic content, Underutilized fruits
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