FORMULATION OF FRUIT BASED NUTRITIOUS BEVERAGES INCORPORATING CELERY AND MINT, USING A NATURAL SWEETENER

Abstract

The present study was undertaken to analyze the nutritional composition of celery and mint to be
used for beverages preparation, using a variety of fruit bases like orange, gooseberry and cherry tomatoes
and also to chemically determine the nutritional constituents of the prepared beverages. Celery juice/pulp
and mint was incorporated into three beverages using orange, gooseberry and cherry tomato in three
different drinks along with Stevia as the natural and zero calorie sweeteners, using the standard ingredients
and methods of preparation. The four treatments were T0 (fruit juice-100% and sugar-20gm), T1 (fruit juice78%, celery juice-20% and mint extract-2%), T2 (fruit juice-76%, celery juice- 20% and mint extract-4%), T3
(fruit juice-74%, celery juice-20% and mint extract-6%) and T4 (fruit juice-72%, celery juice-20% and mint
extract-8%). The beverages prepared were organoleptically evaluated for color, consistency, taste & flavor
and overall acceptability using a 9 point Hedonic Scale. The cherry tomato based celery beverage with mint
was best among all the three. The nutritional compositions of beverages were chemically analyzed. The total
carbohydrate content ranged from 2.28gm to 33.5gm/100ml, the carotene content ranged from 9µg-486.32µg,
the highest being in the cherry tomato based drink. The iron content was between 1.2mg and 2.66mg/100ml,
the vitamin-C was between 22.8mg and 600mg/100ml, the highest being in the gooseberry based juice. The
calcium content ranged from 5mg-56.56mg/100ml.
It was concluded from the study that the beverages formulated using celery; mint and Stevia at different
levels of incorporation were at par with conventional beverages while improving the vitamin-C, carotene,
iron and calcium content in addition to the fact that celery and mint has several other therapeutic benefits