Vol. 12, Issue 10 (2023)

Author(s):
SK Satpathy, Sujata Jena and SN Naik

Abstract:
Aonla is known as Indian gooseberry which is rich in vitamin C and is popular around the world owing to its nutraceutical properties. Aonla is one of the underutilized fruits in India which has huge potential in world market and needs to be popularized. Manual processing of Aonla is very tedious and labour consuming which calls for developing new processing machineries. In the present study, a hand operated destoner cum segmenter was developed and assessed for its performance. The major components of the developed machine were frame, base plate, plunger rod with knives set, plunger rod with guide assembly, fruit holding cup, operating lever, segment scrapper, and seed and segment outlets. The findings of the present investigation revealed that the developed machine could successfully process about 13 kg of Aonla fruits in one hour with 90% pulp recovery efficiency. The developed machine resulted in about 91.3% labour and time saving as compared to manual destoning and segmenting by hand.