Effect of Processing on Nutrient Content of Karanda (Carissa carandas) Fruit at different Stages of Maturity

The rural India's nutritionally rich fruit Karanda ( ) is a versatile but under-exploited plant found throughout the dry Carissa carandas regions of India.This study was aimed to evaluate the effect of blanching and gamma irradiation at 0.25, 0.5 and 1.00 kGy on nutritional composition of karanda fruit at three maturity stages (raw, ripe and dried).Ripe karanda fruits reported high moisture content and significant reduction of moisture content was from raw to dried fruit.The carbohydrate and fat content were highest in dried fruits.There was a significant decrease from raw to ripe.The dried karanda fruits had highest protein content, crude fiber, ash, ascorbic acid and -carotene followed ripe and raw.The moisture content was highest in ripe fruits at 0.25kGy followed by 1.0kGy.The carbohydrate content increased significantly from raw to dried stage in fresh blanched and irradiated fruits.The protein content also increased with the advancement of maturity stage i.e. highest at dried stage.Blanched dried karanda fruit had highest fat content.Significant difference was not observed in the fibre content of raw karanda fruit in blanching.Highest fibre content was in irradiated raw karanda fruit at 0.5 kGy.Significantly higher ash content were observed in blanched fruit.Processing treatments had no impact on ascorbic content in ripe fruit.During processing, the -carotene content decreased significantly, except in raw fruit where, blanching and irradiation at 0.25kGy has higher content.