Osmotic dehydration influence on marking nut (Semecarpus anacardium)

Marking nut (Semecarpus anacardium) is one of the underutilized minor crops growing wildly in our country. This fruit has got great medicinal properties and health benefits. But its importance is not completely understood and the fruits go waste. Therefore, it is necessary to develop value-added products and osmotically dehydrated fruits have good potential. The inclusion of an osmotic process in conventional dehydration has two major advantages quality improvement and energy savings. There was a significant difference found in the samples prepared from different pretreatments of osmotic dehydration. Osmotic pretreatment T3 (Sucrose 60º Brix. + 18 hrs of immersion + Drying at 60º C) had a great influence on the quality and organoleptic properties of the fruits with maximum solid gain (86.40 %), carbohydrates (75.78 %) and minimum scores for moisture (13.60 %). Also, the highest scores for organoleptic parameters like colour (4), appearance (4), texture (3.75) and taste (3.75) were recorded in the same sample.