Nutritional evaluation of <em>Rhus chinensis</em> Mill. (<em>Heimang</em>) and development of value added products

Abstract

<em>Rhus chinensis</em> Mill. is a lesser known highly acidic fruit, traditionally used for its digestive properties and treatment of diarrhea, dysentery and gastrointestinal ailments. In this study, physicochemical characteristics and nutritional properties of different parts of the fruit and development of value added products – <em>R. chinensis </em>tablet and <em>R. chinensis</em> candy and their storability were evaluated. Different parts of the fruit were found to have high content of total fibre-seed (25.97%), pulp (22.83%), whole fruit (22.15%), tablet (15.45%) and candy (14.47%), total fat-seed (36.96%), pulp (20.92%), whole fruit (12.97%), tablet (8.24%) and candy (6.13%) and total acidity-pulp (19.94%), whole fruit (7.28%), seed (3.12%), tablet (3.7%) and candy (3.68%). The major organic acids identified were malic acid, citric acid and ascorbic acid, which are documented for the first time. In comparison to whole fruit and seed, fruit pulp showed the maximum activities of antioxidants, total polyphenols and total flavanoids. These findings suggest that <em>R. chinensis</em> fruit can be considered as a potential functional food or functional food ingredient.