Preparation and Quality Evaluation of Nutritionally Enriched Jam Made from Blends of Indian Blackberry and Other Fruits

Jamun (Syzygium cumini) is a tropical, underutilized fruit which is highly perishable in nature. It is a good source of vitamin C, tannins, gallic acid and anthocyanins and its beneficial effects are mostly due to the presence of bioactive compounds (pigments and phenolic compounds) in it. Due to astringent and fibrous nature, preparation of jam from jamun pulp is quite difficult, but other fruits (apple and kiwifruit) can be incorporated in it to improve its quality. This study aims to develop jam from blends of jamun with other fruits and analyse various physicochemical, nutritional, textural and sensory properties. It was found that physico-chemical properties of jams were not found to vary greatly, but the jamun-kiwifruit jam was found to have fairly high amount of antioxidants(46.75 +/- 0.67%), tartaric acid (26.24 +/- 0.02 mg/100g sample), ascorbic acid (0.08 +/- 0.01 mg/ 100 g sample) and lactic acid (23.95 +/- 0.01 mg/100g sample) and lowest amount of 5-hydroxymethyl-2-furaldehyde (0.38 +/- 0.04 mg/100 g sample). Jamun jam and jamun-kiwifruit jam possessed the texture required for jam while jamun-apple jam was found to be a relatively harder gel. Jam made with jamun and kiwifruit pulp was found to have highest acceptability on the basis of sensory evaluation.