Jamun (Syzygium cuminii) is an important minor fruits in India. Minor fruits are good source of nutrition and pharmaceuticals properties. Among all minor fruits Jamun is highly perishable but nutritious. It is mainly used for diabetes patients and in the pharmaceuticals industries. It is a good source of anthocyanin, effective against the analgesic properties. There is no proper data available for the Indian Jamun. The fruit is having a very good market value, but due to its unavailability and perishability it is still unexploited. Physicochemical, mechanical and sensory properties had been investigated for Jamun fruit as well as seed in this paper for further use and storage. Weight of the whole fruit was 8.99±1.89gm whereas the seed weight was 1.64±0.21gm. In case of mechanical property whole fruit can be penetrated up-to 4.1mm whereas, at the same load for seed it can penetrate up-to 2.53mm. Purple colour for pulp, juice and whole fruit was -9.7, -0.9, and -0.76 respectively. High amount of polyphenol (203.76±9.84, 386.51±10.25) tannin (94.52±9.19, 388.99±7.34) and anthocyanin (195.58±6.15, 18.47±1.99) present in both fruit and seed. In case of minerals, presence of K, Ca and Na are significant. In case of sensory analysis mouthfeel and colour was good compared to market sample. This study is helpful for the postharvest processing, machine designing and for further analysis of Jamun.

A trend of present encapsulation research indicates an increased interest in the search for natural encapsulants for bioactive phytochemicals. The present study in pursuit of the same studies the use of jackfruit seed starch (JSS), an underutilized natural polysaccharide in conjugation with soy protein isolate (SPI) as an encapsulating material and NBRE-15 as an emulsifier. Three independent variables viz., total soluble solids (TSS, 20, 25 and 30° Brix), SPI: JSS (1:1, 1:3 and 1:5) and NBRE-15 (0.1, 0.2 and 0.3%) were optimized for achieving the most efficient encapsulation of anthocyanin using a three level, three parameter, Box-Behnken design (BBD) of the Design of Experiments (DOE). The responses considered for the optimization were monomeric anthocyanin content, antioxidant activity and encapsulation efficiency. A combination of 27.0% TSS, 1:5 SPI: JSS ratio and 0.3% NBRE-15 was found to be optimum for the encapsulation of anthocyanin with the desirability of 92.6%. Microcapsules obtained using the optimized combination of independent variables was found to contain 3215.59 mg/100 g monomeric anthocyanin. The antioxidant activity and encapsulation efficiency of the encapsulated material obtained using optimized combinations of independent variable were found to be 365.26 µmol Trolox/g and 89.71%, respectively. The microcapsules were also additionally analyzed for the particle size distribution and morphological characterization. Particle size analysis indicated that the microcapsules obtained had a mean particle size of 60.97 µm. Scanning electron microscopy for morphological characterization indicated that the microcapsules so obtained were oval to round in shape and had a smooth surface. Storage studies to estimate the half-life of anthocyanin in the microcapsule at room temperature (37 °C) clearly indicated greater stability i.e. 63 days when stored under amber-colored vial compared to only 35 days when stored under clear transparent vial.

Response surface methodology (RSM) was used to optimize rice bran oil encapsulation using jackfruit seed starch – whey protein isolate blend as wall material by spray drying technique. Oil concentration (20, 25 and 30 %), wall material (Jackfruit seed starch & whey protein isolate) starch-protein ratio (1:1, 3:1 and 5:1) and spray drying inlet air temperature (140, 150 and 160 °C) were considered as process variables for optimization. A three-factor, three-level Box-Behnken design of RSM was used to conduct the experiments with the aim of maximizing encapsulation efficiency and minimizing peroxide value in the encapsulated powder. A polynomial regression model was fitted using design expert software, and the optimum conditions obtained were 20 % oil concentration, 3:1 starch-protein ratio and 140 °C spray drying inlet air temperature. The encapsulated rice bran oil powers obtained at optimized conditions offered 85.90 % of encapsulation efficiency and 1.18 meq/kg oil of peroxide value. The characterization study revealed that powder particles size (diameter) varied from 3.40 to 300.51 µm and most of the particles were smooth spheres with little appendages.