Physico-chemical and nutritional analysis of seed and seed-butter of Garcinia spp.

Abstract

The genus Garcinia belonging to the family Clusiaceae is an underutilized perennial tree found throughout the tropics of Asia and Africa. Garcinia species such as cambodge (Garcinia gummi-gutta) and kokum (Garcinia indica) are commercially exploited as condiments to flavour a range of food preparations. Cambodge is grown widely in the homestead of Kerala, whereas kokum is cultivated as a traditional homestead crop in the Konkan region of Maharashtra, Goa and coastal and southern interior parts of Karnataka. The economic part of both cambodge and kokum is dried fruit rind. Plenty of seeds after fruit rind collection go as waste and only limited seeds are utilized for seedling production. It is essential to evaluate the seeds for biochemical and nutritional factors, butter recovery as well as physico-chemical and nutritional properties of butter. In this context, the present study was undertaken with the objective to characterize the physico-chemical and nutritional properties of seed and seed butter in cambodge and kokum. The experiment was carried out in the Department of Plantation, Spices, Medicinal and Aromatic Crops, College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara. Three high yielding accessions of each cambodge and kokum were selected from the department farm and college orchard of the College of Agriculture, Vellanikkara, and ICAR-NBPGR, Regional Station, Vellanikkara. The significant difference was recorded among the accessions of cambodge and kokum seed powders for most of the biochemical characters and also between cambodge and kokum. The total carbohydrates, protein and total ash contents were significantly higher in cambodge seed powder (13.33 g/100 g ,1.28 g/100 g and 2.53 %) when compared to kokum seed powder (4.56 g/100 g, 0.42 g/100 g and 2.36 %), respectively. Whereas, in kokum seed powder significantly higher moisture content (11.45 %), total fat (40.28 %) and dietary fibre (4.55 %) were recorded. In the case of cambodge and kokum seed powders, all accessions exhibited significant differences in nutritional characters except for iron content. There was a significant difference in mineral composition between the cambodge and kokum seed powders. Calcium and iron contents were significantly higher in cambodge seed powder (163.20 and 16.20 mg/100 g) than that of kokum seed powder (48.30 and 14.30 mg/100 g), respectively. Whereas, potassium and sodium contents were significantly higher in kokum seed powder (608.50 and 32.10 mg/ 100 g) when compared to cambodge seed powder (478.40 and 15.00 mg/ 100 g), respectively. The recovery of butter ranged from 37.25 (petroleum benzene) to 44.98 (acetone) per cent in cambodge and 40.29 (petroleum ether) to 49.61 (acetone) per cent in kokum using different solvents. Butter recovery in cambodge and kokum were found higher in acetone compared to other solvents. But the appearance of butter was found good when extracted using petroleum ether. In both cambodge and kokum, butter extracted through the hot water skimming method ranged from 22 to 25 per cent. The seed butter extracted using petroleum ether was employed for physicochemical analysis. Among the cambodge accessions, a significant difference was recorded for the physico-chemical properties of butter except for refractive index, peroxide value and ester value. Whereas in kokum, all the accessions showed significant differences in physico-chemical properties except for ash content, iodine value and peroxide value. Moisture content, melting point, ash content, saponification value, iodine value and ester value were significantly superior in cambodge butter (0.40 %, 39.17 ℃, 0.139 %, 188.70 mg KOH/g, 57.05 g/100 g, 183.20 mg KOH/g) compared to kokum butter (0.15 %, 37.94 ℃, 0.116 %, 180.00 mg KOH/g, 37.95 g/100 g, 174.40 mg KOH/g), respectively. The oil content and peroxide value of butter were significantly higher in kokum (99.85 % and 5.81 meq/kg) than that of cambodge (99.60 % and 4.39 meq/kg), respectively. No significant difference was observed for refractive index, pH and acid value between cambodge and kokum butters. Among the cambodge accessions, significant difference was observed for nutritional composition in the seed butter. In kokum accessions, significant difference was recorded for nutritional composition except for sodium content. The significantly higher value for potassium content was recorded in cambodge (32.80 mg/100 g) compared to that of kokum (18.30 mg/100 g). Whereas for sodium content, significantly higher value was recorded in kokum butter (17.60 mg/100 g) when compared to cambodge butter (14.90 mg/100 g). No significant difference was recorded in calcium and iron contents between cambodge and kokum butters. The fatty acid profiling of seed butter in cambodge and kokum exhibited six prime fatty acids. In cambodge and kokum butters, high percentage (99) of long-chain fatty acids viz. stearic acid, oleic acid and palmitic acid were recorded. Stearic acid in cambodge butter ranged from 36.06 (acetone) to 50.76 per cent (petroleum ether), whereas in kokum butter, it ranged from 32.06 (acetone) to 62.54 per cent (petroleum benzene) using different solvents. Oleic acid percentage in cambodge butter ranged from 46.28 (petroleum ether) to 61.37 (acetone) per cent, and in the case of kokum butter it ranged from 35.59 (petroleum ether) to 65.43 per cent (acetone). The compounds such as palmitic acid, myristic acid, lauric acid and capric acid were also identified in smaller proportions in cambodge and kokum butter. In the organoleptic evaluation, cambodge and kokum butters were compared with milk and cocoa butters, which revealed that milk butter was superior in all the organoleptic qualities. Whereas, cambodge and kokum butter were significantly superior in quality attributes like appearance (7.69 and 7.53) and colour (7.58 and 7.82) compared to cocoa butter (6.82 and 6.64), respectively. Value added products viz. burfi and cake were prepared using cambodge, kokum, cocoa and milk butters. Organoleptic evaluation of value added products revealed that the burfi and cake prepared using milk butter was most accepted with a total score of 57.34, which was followed by burfi and cake of cambodge (55.48 and 53.11) and kokum (52.46 and 54.53), respectively. Both cambodge and kokum seed yield butter of food grade having high biochemical and nutritional properties which can be used in the food, pharmaceutical and cosmetic sectors.