Effects of frozen of marula fruits (Sclerocarya birrea) on chemical, antioxidant activities, and sensory properties of marula fruit juice

Lungile Kkany Nthabiseng; Adeyemi Ayotunde Adeyanju; Oluwaseun Peter Bamidele

doi:10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20452

Effects of frozen of marula fruits (Sclerocarya birrea) on chemical, antioxidant activities, and sensory properties of marula fruit juice

Heliyon. 2023 Sep 27;9(10):e20452. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e20452. eCollection 2023 Oct.

Authors

Lungile Kkany Nthabiseng¹, Adeyemi Ayotunde Adeyanju², Oluwaseun Peter Bamidele³

Affiliations

¹ School of Agricultural Science, University of Mpumalanga, South Africa.
² Department of Food Science and Microbiology, Landmark University, Omu-Aran, Nigeria.
³ Department of Food Science and Technology, University of Venda, Thohoyandou, South Africa.

Abstract

This study determined the effects of frozen storage on physicochemical, phenolic content and antioxidant activities of fruit juice extracted from frozen marula fruits. The marula fruits were frozen for zero to eight weeks after which the frozen marula fruits were thawed between 10 and 12 h and the juice extracted manually. There was 36.35% decrease in vitamin C content of the juice, 36.70% decrease in TPC, 46.50% decrease in FRAP and 53.22% decrease in TFC. The colour of the marula fruit juice decreases with increase in frozen storage time and the marula fruit juice extracted from unfrozen marula fruit was score highest in all the sensory properties evaluated. Although, freezing is one of the best preservative methods of fruits, the type of freezer used for the freezing process determines the nutritional value of the fruits and the juice. A home freezer may not be good to store marula fruits.

Keywords: Extraction; Juice; Marula; Processing; Sensory.