Evaluation of the use of Syzygium cumini fruit extract as an antioxidant additive in orange juice and its sensorial impact

Abstract

This work is an exploratory study of the possibility of promoting the consumption of Syzygium cumini fruit by adding its extract to orange juice making good use of its functional (antioxidant) properties. S. cumini fruit extract was characterized in terms of its anthocyanin content (2.11 g/100 g expressed in cyanidine-3-glucoside equivalents), total phenolic compounds (360 mg/100 g expressed in gallic acid equivalents) and antioxidant capacity evaluated by the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl free radical scavenging method. The effects of the addition of S. cumini fruit crude extract as well as its chromatographic fractions on the juice were assessed chemically by headspace solid-phase micro-extraction and gas chromatography coupled with a mass spectrometry detector. Only six compounds had their chromatographic peak intensities clearly changed and the results are discussed in terms of the inhibition of the formation of 2-octanone, hexanol, α-copaene, and α-panasinsene and the conservation of octyl acetate and p-menth-1-en-9-ol. Sensory evaluation of orange juice with and without S. cumini crude extract addition did not show any significant differences in the sensorial profile, discriminative and acceptance tests.

Keywords::

• Syzygium cumini
• Java plum
• Jambolão
• anthocyanins
• orange juice

Declaration of interest: We wish to acknowledge Professor Douglas Wagner Franco (Universidade de São Paulo) for his kind collaboration in the use of the GC–MS system and CAPES for fellowship support. We report no conflicts of interest. We alone are responsible for the content and writing of the paper.