Effect of Different Drying Methods on Physico-Chemical Attributes of Guava’s Fruit Pulp Powder

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is one of the most popular fruits in tropical and subtropical regions of India. It is popularly known as” Apple of tropics”, belongs to the family Myrtaceae and often considered as “super fruit”. It is rich in vitamin A and C, omega-3 and 6 polyunsaturated fatty acids and contains high levels of dietary fiber and other nutritional properties. Guava is a highly perishable fruit crop and has a very limited shelf life, so there is a need to preserve the fruits in dried form, whose powder can be used for processing purposes, value addition in off season demands. Therefore, we conducted an experiment to study the effect of different drying methods on physico-chemical attributes of guava’s fruit pulp powder (Santos et al., 2017). Fruits of guava pulp were used to prepare powder by different drying methods like freeze drying, sun drying, air drying and oven drying. Results showed that bulk density and moisture percent was highest recorded in sun drying method followed by air drying while minimum was recorded with oven drying followed by freeze drying. Maximum nutritional value likeFiber (5.97%), Ash(1.38%), Protein percent (1.82%), Total sugar (32.88%), reducing (23.14%) & non-reducing sugar (9.73%), ascorbic acid (227.90 mg/100 g), Titratable acidity (2.20%), Total phenols (250.66) and DPPH radical scavenging activity (83.40) was observed maximum with freeze drying followed by air drying. Taste, flavour, aroma and overall acceptability were better in freeze drying followed by Air drying.