Vol. 11, Special Issue 6 (2022)

Author(s):
V Vasudeva Rao, Venkata SP Bitra, DD Smith, A Mani and Vimala Beera

Abstract:
Most of the fruits contain a high quantity of pectin, making the juice extraction difficult by conventional methods. Clarified juices are making a remarkable place in the market. Conventional treatment of sapodilla pulp yields very viscous, turbid, and low juice recovery. To overcome this problem, a technique called enzyme-assisted extraction is used which consists of an enzymatic treatment applied during the first steps of fruit processing. This study was initiated to optimize the enzymatic clarification process of sapodilla juice using response surface methodology (RSM). Sapodilla pulp was treated with pectinase enzyme at various concentrations (0.05-0.15%), temperatures (30-50 ℃), and incubation time periods (40-120 min) with uniform stirring at 1500 rpm. A Box-Behnken design was used to establish the optimum conditions for enzymatic clarification of sapodilla juice to obtain maximum juice yield. A significant quadratic regression model describing the changes in juice yield with respect to process parameters was established with the coefficient of determination, R²=0.93. Incubation time was the most significant variable affecting the juice yield. Maximum juice yield of 93.05% was obtained at the optimum desirable process treatment conditions at the enzyme concentration of 0.1% of sapodilla pulp, incubation time of 40 min, and incubation temperature of 30 °C.