Change in sensory evaluation and microbial count of jackfruit seed flour during storage

Introduction

The world's largest fruit, growing to a maximum length of 60 centimetres and a maximum weight of 18 kilogrammes, is the jackfruit, which is evergreen trees. Its aggregate is ellipsoidal, made up of many "bulbs of seed" with flesh encircling a stringy core, all encased in a rough rind. Large stiff glossy green leaves, measuring 15 to 20 cm in length, are characteristic of the jackfruit tree, which reaches a maturity height of 15 to 20 meters. A lot of blooms are carried on club-shaped rachis by monecious jackfruit trees. Men's spikes are found on both fruit stalks and terminal branchlets, whilst female spikes are carried on fruit stalks. After three to six days following anthesis, a spike has finished pollinating and fertilising. Sorosis is the botanical term for the multiplication of fruit that results from the simultaneous growth of the ovaries, perianths, and inflorescence axis. A well-developed tree may yield up to 700 fruits year, with each fruit weighing between 0.5 and 50 kg. An acre of land can provide an average of 50-86 tonnes of fruit. There are 500 seeds in each fruit. The seeds are light brown to brown, 2-3 cm long and 1-1.5 cm wide. As long as they are kept in cold, humid circumstances, jackfruit seeds may be stubbornly preserved for up to a month. Native to the Western Ghats of India, the jackfruit grows in the jungle. South and south-east Asia's tropical lowlands, as well as some areas of central and Brazilian and eastern African regions (Anonymous, 2012) [1] . The states that produce the most jackfruit in India include Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Kerala, Tripura, Orissa, Assam, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Karnataka. Though it is produced on sporadic plantations, jackfruit is popular in the eastern Vidarbha zone of Maharashtra and is effectively grown in the Konkan region (Ekta et al., 2018) [4] . In 2018, Kerala designated it to be the state fruit. According to Anonymous (2019) [3] , in 2018 India produced 18,57,000 MT of jackfruit on 1,87,000 hectares of cultivation. Since jackfruit was once considered the "poor man's food," the local impoverished people in the jackfruit-growing region utilised it as a daily meal in place of rice. India stands for the world globally recognised pioneer in jackfruit production. The fruit that gets the least use is this one.

Objective and Hypothesis

Jackfruit being a neglected fruit crop of this region, very limited research has been conducted on extending the shelf life and value-addition in jackfruit seed. Therefore, the present studies are undertaken

Materials and Methods

The present investigation was undertaken in the Fruit and Vegetable Processing Unit, College of Horticulture, Dapoli-415712, Dist. Ratnagiri, Maharashtra State (India) during the year 2021-2022. Soft flesh jackfruits seeds were used for study and they were analysed for chemical composition. During the course of investigation jackfruit seed flour was prepared. and change in sensory evaluation and microbial count were studied during three months' storage at ambient temperature (27 to 30 °C). Sensory evaluation of jackfruit seed flour under study was done with the help of a panel of ten judges for evaluating the colour, flavour, texture and overall acceptability by using a nine-point hedonic scale (Amerine et al. 1965) [1] . The overall quality score was obtained by averaging the score for colour, flavour and texture. The ripe, soft-fleshed jackfruits were free of disease, and their bulbs were removed. Next, the carpels and seeds were divided. The seeds were then cleaned with water three to four times to get rid of stickiness and dead material. After two days of drying in a cabinet drier, the seeds were weighed using an electronic weighing scale. The powder was made using the dried seeds in the manner described in

Results and Discussion Colour

The data regarding the changes in colour of jackfruit seed flour during storage at ambient temperature is presented in Table 1. On an average the score for colour of jackfruit seed flour was 7.70. The highest score for colour was obtained in '0' month i.e. T 1 (7.93) and T 2 (7.83) was at far with T 1 . The minimum score for colour was observed in T 4 (7.48) i.e. at 3 months during storage. The colour of jackfruit seed flour was found to be decreased from T 1 ('0' month) to T 4 (3 months). The gradual decrease in colour in jackfruit seed flour from 7.93 to 7.48 may be due to increase in moisture and acceleration of nonenzymatic browning reaction during storage. Similar result also found by Sonal (2017) [5] observed that the score for colour at the initial stage was 8.1 and after 6 months it decreased up to 7.2 in jackfruit seed flour.

Flavour

The data regarding the changes in flavour of jackfruit seed flour during storage at ambient temperature is presented in Table 2. On average the score for flavour of jackfruit seed flour was 7.32. The highest score for flavour was obtained in '0' month i.e. T 1 (7.58) which was significantly superior over other treatments. The minimum score for flavour was observed in T 4 (6.95) i.e. at 3 months during storage. The flavour of jackfruit seed flour was found to be decreased from T 1 ('0' month) to T 4 (3 months) during storage. The gradual decrease in flavour in jackfruit seed flour from 7.58 to 6.95 may be due to increase in moisture during storage and loss of volatile flavour compounds during storage. Similar result was found by Sonal (2017) [5] , they observed that the highest flavour score recorded by glass bottles at '0' month (8.0) was decreased to 7.0 at 6 months of storage.

Texture

The data regarding the changes in texture of jackfruit seed flour during storage at ambient temperature is presented in Table 3. On average the score for texture of jackfruit seed flour was 7.75. The highest score for texture was obtained in '0' month i.e. T 1 (7.87) and T 2 (7.79) was at par with T 1 .

The minimum score for texture was observed in T 4 (7.63) i.e. at 3 months during storage.

The texture of jackfruit seed flour was found to be decreased from T 1 ('0' month) to T 4 (3 months). The slightly decrease in texture in jackfruit seed flour from 7.87 to 7.63 may be due to increase in moisture during storage. Sonal (2017) [5] reported that the score for the texture of jackfruit seed flour decreased from 8.1 to 6.7 during 6 months of the storage period.

Overall acceptability

The data regarding the changes in the sensory score for overall acceptability of jackfruit seed flour during storage are presented in Table 4. The average score for overall acceptability was obtained 7.59. The highest score for overall acceptability was obtained in '0' month i.e. T 1 (7.79) and which was significantly superior over others. The minimum score for overall acceptability was observed in T 4 (7.35) i.e. at 3 months during storage. The overall acceptability of jackfruit seed flour was found to be decreased from T 1 ('0'month) to T 4 (3 months). The slightly decrease in overall acceptability score in jackfruit seed flour from 7.79 to 7.35 may be due to the decrease in score for colour, flavour and texture of jackfruit seed flour during storage. Similar result was mentioned by Sonal (2017) [5] . They observed that the score for overall acceptability of jackfruit seed flour was decreased during storage of six months from 8.1 to 7.3.

Microbial count

With respect to data regarding changes in microbial count of jackfruit-seed flour during storage, it is seen that there was no microbial growth observed in jackfruit seed flour during three months of storage (T 1 to T 4 ) at ambient temperature. Similar results were reported by Sonal et al. (2017) [5] in jackfruit seed flour during 6 months storage.

Conclusion

In case of sensory evaluation of jackfruit seed flour, the score for colour, flavour, texture and overall acceptability decreased from treatment T 1 i.e. '0' month to T 4 (3 months) during storage.

Treatment T 1 ('0' month) of jackfruit seed flour obtained highest scores for colour, flavour, texture and overall acceptability. However, till 3 months storage (T 4 ) jackfruit seed flour was acceptable for market.

During three months storage (T 1 to T 4 ) of jackfruit seed flour no microbial growth was detected.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementsThis work is a part of M.Sc research work, at College of Horticulture, DBSKKV, Dapoli, (M.S.), India. The authors are thankful to the Head and Associate Dean, College of Horticulture, DBSKKV, Dapoli and Research Guide for providing the facilities. Authors extend their sincere thanks to the colleagues of M.Sc. student, Department of Fruit Science College of Horticulture, Dapoli for their support in data collection.

References

1. Amerine MA, Pangborn RM, Roessler EB. Principles of sensory evaluation of food. London: Academic Press; 1965.
2. Anonymous. Jackfruit improvement in the Asia-Pacific region -A status report. Asia-Pacific Association of Agricultural Research Institution, Bangkok, Thailand; 2012. p. 182.
3. Anonymous. Area and production of jackfruit in India (1st Advance Estimates). Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Government of India. Accessed 2nd April 2019.
4. Ekta PN, Dahale MH, Ashvini CV, Naita PC. Variability studies on physico-chemical characteristics of jackfruit genotypes from Eastern Maharashtra, India. Int J Curr Microbiol Appl Sci. 2018; Special Issue6:2294-2298.