Utilization of Wild Himalayan Fig Ficus palmata for Micronutrient Fortified Product Development and Bacteriocin Production

Abstract

xii newlineABSTRACT newlineWild Himalayan fig (Ficus palmata) is an underutilized fruit found in the mid-hill region of the world. A large amount of this fruit goes waste resulting in considerable loss of natural resources. Further, the high nutritive value of the cultivated fig made it also important for the utilization purposes. Hence, a study has been planned to utilize wild fig fruit for the development of various fortified value added products and bacteriocin production. Thus, in the present investigations, the wild fig fruits were collected from different districts of Himachal Pradesh such as Kangra, Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Solan. On the basis of some chemical characteristics such as total phenols, anthocyanins, ascorbic acid and antioxidant activity, the fruits collected from Hamirpur district had an edge over the fruits from other districts. Further, the fruits from district Hamirpur were also found rich in rutin (222.6 and#956;g/g), isoquercitin (42.5 ug/g), quercetin (24.6 ug/g), kaempferol (2.45 ug/g) and luteolin (1.45 ug/g). The wild fruits also contain different minerals such as calcium (21.0 mg/100g), magnesium (39.1 mg/g), phosphorus (25.7 mg/g), potassium (17.5 mg/g), copper (0.43 mg/g), sodium (535 ppm), manganese (130 ppm), zinc (245 ppm) and silicon (1.0 mg/g). In the studies, various ingredients have also been standardized for the development of various value added products such as squash, RTS drink, jam and leather. In case of squash, among different treatments tried with different combinations of pulp, citric acid and cardamom flavor, the wild fig squash prepared with 30 % pulp, 0.5 % citric acid and 5.0 % cardamom flavour (P3A2C2) was found to be best on the basis of various physico chemical characteristics. Among the various drinks, the wild fig RTS-drink prepared with 20 % pulp, 0.7 % citric acid and 18 ºB TSS (P3A2C2) was selected. Further, among the wild fig jams, the combination prepared with 0.7 % pectin and 0.7 % citric acid (P3C3) was selected as the treatment had higher content of antioxidant, total phenols and ascorbic acid along with best sugar acid blend. In case of wild fig leather, the leather prepared with 30 % pulp and 0.7 % citric acid (P3C3) was found best and selected for further fortified product development. Among the different concentrations tried for fortification of these different products, the products fortified with 400 ppm calcium and 600 IU vitamin D2 were adjudged as the best on the basis of sensory analysis. The final concentration of calcium and vitamin D2 was more than 98 percent in all the products. Further, seven isolates from natural newlinexiii newlinefermentation of wild Himalayan fig pickle were isolated. The isolate SU7 was identified as Lactobacillus fermentum by 16 sRNA gene technique. The complete purification of bacteriocin from Lactobacillus fermentum MF803712 was done by gel filtration chromatography. It has been observed that with the increase in purification fold from 1.6 to 4.10, the antagonistic activity was also increased (12 mm to 24 mm) against the food borne pathogens. The molecular weight of completely purified bacteriocin was approximately 7.5 kDa The antimicrobial activity of completely purified bacteriocin was stable up to 121 oC, but there was a decrease in the antimicrobial activity with the increase in temperature. However, among the different pH, the bacteriocin activity was maximum at pH 6-7 and above this the activity decreased. Proteolytic enzyme papain completely degraded the activity of purified bacteriocin. In RTS-drink bacteriocin reduced the population of Bacillus cereus, Escherichia coli and Listeria monocytogenes upto 100 per cent when used in concentration 4.0 to 4.5 ml/100 ml. Hence, from the present studies, it can be concluded that wild fig fruits can be effectively utilized for the preparation of various fortified value added products. Furthermore, the bacteriocin production from lactic acid bacteria also added a charm in the study due its application in food industry as a biopreservative. Key words: Wild Himalayan fig (Ficus palmata), fortified products, antioxidant, lactic acid bacteria, Lactobaillus fermentum, bacteriocins. newline