Effect of pre-treatments on nutritional quality of dehydrated spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.) powder

Abstract

An exploration was conducted in the year 2017-2018 at College of Horticulture, Bagalkot, Karnataka, India to evaluate nutritional quality of dehydrated spine gourd (Momordica dioica Roxb.) slices as influenced by different pre-treatments. Spine gourd is a high value underexploited vegetable which is rich in nutrition, medicinal value and also having potential to cure many diseases and disorders with good cultivation potential. In order to enhance its availability in the offseason along with proper retention of nutritional property dehydration was carried out with different pretreatments as a preservative method. The effect of pretreatments on nutritional attributes was observed in the present study. The treatment T2 which include blanching of spine gourd slices for 3 min. and steeping in 0.2 per cent KMS and 2 per cent salt solution for 10 min. showed significantly best results with respect to protein (1.93%), ash (8.11%), total phenols (831.20 mg GAE/100g) and L*(78.32), a*(0.68), except b* (32.28) values and carbohydrate per cent (p>0.01). The effect of pre-treatments showed non-significant results for moisture, water activity, fat, crude fibre and calorific value (kcal/100g). It was concluded form the study that the pretreatment with KMS (0.2 %) and salt (2%) solution along with blanching for 3 min. was considered best with respect to nutritional quality retention.