Kusum Meghwal, S.K. Jain, P.S. Champawat, Arun Kumar and Navneet K. Agarwal
Abstract
Ber (also known as Indian jujube or Ziziphus mauritiana Lamk.) is a fruit primarily consumed fresh and is a significant crop in arid regions due to its high nutritional value. Itâs a rich source of provitamin A, vitamin C and B complex, as well as minerals like calcium, potassium, bromine, rubidium and lanthanum. The fruit has a sweet, spongy pulp and is particularly noted for its high ascorbic acid and carotenoid content. In this research the effect of the concentration of glycerol monostearate (GMS) and whipping time (WT) on the foaming properties of ber (Zizyphu smauritiana lamk.) fruit pulp was investigated. Ber foams were prepared from pulp by adding different concentrations of GMS(3, 4, 5 and 6%) and whipping at different whipping times (4, 6, 8 and 10 min). Box-Behnken design of experiments was used to optimize the foaming properties. 16 experiments were carried out using the design with two independent variables (GMS and WT). The optimum conditions achieved after the numerical and graphical optimization for maximum foam expansion and stability and minimum foam density were: GMS (6 g/100 g pulp) and WT (10 min). The desirability of 0.998 was achieved at this optimum point. The predicted value of foam density, foam expansion, and foam stability were 0.8200 g cm-3, 22.61 % and 0.94 % at optimum parameters while the experimental value was 0.820±0.02 gcm-3, 22.61±0.02 % and 0.9460±0.02 %, respectively.