Lime potentials as biopreservative as alternative to chemical preservatives in pineapple, orange and watermelon juice blend

Abstract

The major challenge influencing fruits economic value is the relatively short shelf-life. This study preserved fruit juice blend from pineapple, watermelon and orange using lime juice as biopreservative comparing its effectiveness with ascorbic acid and citric acid as chemical preservatives during storage at ambient temperature (27±2oC) for five weeks. The acceptability of the juice by consumer, biochemical changes and microbial load was also evaluated on a weekly basis. From the results, all the samples were acceptable on a 9-point hedonic scale (8.70-8.90) with 1% lime biopreserved juice blend was the most preferred. This shows that that lime effectively controlled the rate at which increase pH and decrease of TTA occurred during storage by double-fold when compared with ascorbic and citric acid used in the study. A minimal decrease in pH of 0.75% was documented during the five weeks of study. The specific gravity of the juice was relatively table during storage except for the unpreserved juice. Lime addition at 2 and 4% effectively suppressed fungal growth in the juice for five weeks of storage. Lime juice added as biopreservative at 4% showed the best bacteriostatic and fungistatic performance while the consistent increase in the bacteria growth from 60×102 - 11×1010 CFU/mL was recorded in unpreserved at ambient temperatures during storage. Ascorbic acid and citric acid as preservative effectively inhibited microbial growth of bacterial and fungal for 2 weeks, followed by a steady increase from 16×101 - 17×103 , 20×102 - 62×102 and 20×102 - 36×104 ; 21×102 - 48×102 CFU/mL respectively. Low Bacterial count was recorded in juice preserved with 1% lime (70×101 CFU/mL), 2% lime preserved (41×102 CFU/mL) and 4% lime (13×101 CFU/mL) at week 4 and week 5 respectively. The study established that lime is a good biopreservative with antimicrobial effect can serve as a replacement for chemical preservatives.

The role of nutraceutical fruit drink on neurodegenerative diseases: a review

“…Fruits can be harnessed as potential sources of nutraceuticals owing to their inherent composition of beneficial elements. Fruits and fruit juice have been used for cognition and brain health (Maqsood et al ., 2020; Olaniran et al ., 2020b). Fruits such as apples, banana, blackcurrant, berries, cherries, guava, oranges, plums, kiwifruits, lime, lemon juice, pawpaw, tangerine, prunes, pineapple, red grapes, watermelon, pomegranates, date and apricots are a valuable asset with a positive effect on the brain and can assist in checking age‐linked memory loss and other alterations (Kraft, 2019; Olaniran et al ., 2019).…”

“…Citrus fruits are also rich sources of limonoids which are human health promoters and have anticancer, antioxidant, antibacterial and antifungal properties (Russo et al ., 2016). Oranges are the most common harvested citrus and account for seventy‐five per cent of cultivated citrus fruits (Olaniran et al ., 2020b). It contains beta‐carotene, hesperidin, rutin, lutein, naringin and beta‐cryptoxanthin (carotenoids) and naringenin (flavonoids) which are vital phytochemicals (Aschoff et al ., 2015).…”