INTRODUCTION:

India is one of the largest producers of milk with 74 million tones in 1998-99. In the first decade after independence (1950-60) the production was 17-20 million tones. The production was reached to 58.6 million tones in1992-93. Milk production was increased by operation flood project. More than 68,900 dairy co-operative societies have been organized in 170 milk sheds ,involving about 8.8 million farmers in 2004 (Indian Agricultural, 2005)⁴. In the recent years there are many milk based products are available in the market in which whey is a byproduct prepared from milk. “Whey is a collective term referring to the serum or liquid part of milk” that remains after the manufacture of cheese, casein, paneer, channa and shrikhand is used to prepare many products like whey based beverages. In general the manufacture of 1 tonne of cheese or casein results in the production of 8 or 25 tonnes of liquid whey respectively (marshall 1982)⁷. Whey contains lactose, minerals, vitamins, non casein protein and traces of milk fat. (Indian Agricultural, 2005)⁴. Whey proteins are also known to have high nutritional value due to their varied amino acid composition and good digestibility (De wit, 1998)².

Pomegranate fruit is a rich source of two types of polyphenolic compounds, Anthocyanins. (Such as delphinidin, cyaniding,and pelargonidin) which give the fruit and juice its red colour ,and hydrolysable tannins (such as punicalin, pedunculagin, gallagic and ellagic acid esters of glucose). Which account for 92 percent of antioxidant activity of the whole fruit. The soluble polyphenol content in pomegranate juice varies between 0.2 and 1.0 percent (http://en.wikinedia.org/wiki/pomegranete)³.

In several human clinical trials, the juice of the pomegranate has been found effective in reducing several heart risk factors, including LDL oxidation, macro phase oxidative status, and foam all formation, all of which are steps in atherosclerosis and heart disease. Tannins have been identified as the primary components responsible for the reduction of oxidative states which lead to these risk factors. http://wikipedia.org/wiki/pomegranate)³.

Ginger is a rhizome belonging to the family of zingiberaceae. The pungency is caused by the presence of gingerol a yellowish oily substance that is present in ginger. Ginger also contains fiber, resin and starch. There is a considerable amount of gingerin and potassium oxalate is also found in ginger. Ginger stimulates the digestive process and acts as an excellent carminative. Tincture zingebris mitis or a fort is one of the constituents of the official carminative mixture. It is also used as a medicine for dysmenorrhoea and amenorrhoea due to exposure to cold winds and taking cold bath. It is insurance against indigestion, cancer, gastritis, flatulence, gastrointestinal infection and parasites. (Medicinal secrets of your food by Oscar laureate sir Prof. Dr, Aman)⁸.

Moringa or Horse radish tree grows allover India and Pakistan. This Moringa leaves contain very rich amount of vitamin-A, vitamin-C and calcium. Leaves juice of this Moringa is used to prevent malnutrition, anemia, tuberculosis asthma, seasonal attacks of cold and bronchitis, premature old age, pre mature loss of strength and vigor, nervousness, functional sterility in males and females etc. (Medicinal secrets of your food by Oscar laureate sir Prof. Dr. Aman)⁸.

Cauliflower plants belong to cabbage and knoll-khol family usually cauliflower leaves are discarded and are not used as vegetable. They are the cheapest source of vitamin A between 10,000 to 12,000 I.U per 100 g. A cup full of the leaves juice taken every day regularly prevents night blindness, dry skin, chronic, rhinitis, and loss of smell, urinary calculi, sterility, and premature grayness. Fresh leave juice during pregnancy helps the fetal growth, eases labor and prevents early conception after child birth by delaying the appearance of menstruation.

There is no systematic study reported in the available literature on standard manufacturing methods, storage studies, and sensory quality of whey based beverages blended with fruits. Hence the present study was planned to develop and study the beverages developed with whey.

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Branded packet milk with Solid-not-fat (SNF) 8.5 percent and fat 4.5 percent was utilized for the preparation of whey by coagulating with 2 percent citric acid. Whey was heated to 60 ⁰c before using it for preparation of beverage. Matured pomegranate (Punica granatum) fruits (red variety) were purchased from local market. Juice was extracted from the seeds using blender, filtered in a strainer to remove hard part of the seed. Good quality fresh ginger was selected and cleaned by soaking for 10 min in water and skin was scrapped. Aqueous solution of ginger was extracted with a blender and filtered. Fresh Drumstick (Moringa olifera) and cauliflower (Brassica oleracea) leaves were purchased from a local market. The leaves were cleaned washed and blanched in water for 2 min, then leaves were dried in hot air oven for 4 hrs at 60⁰C.The dried leaves were finely powdered and fine powder was stored in an air tight container.

The quality of these variations was estimated by evaluating Brix, Acidity and pH periodically during 30 days of storage and results obtained were compared with each other. Total acidity was calculated by titrating the beverage against 0.1N NaOH according to the AOAC (1995)¹ method, where as pH was measured directly using a digital pH meter and Brix was calculated with Brix Refractometer.

Fig no; 1 Flow chart for the Preparation of whey based pomegranate beverage

Recipe for the preparation of 100 ml of beverage

Treatment

Whey (ml)

Pomegranate

juice (ml)

Ginger extract (ml)

Sugar (g)

Leaf powder (g)

Carbonated

65 ml

55 ml

45 ml

65 ml

55 ml

45 ml

30 ml

40 ml

50ml

30 ml

40 ml

50 ml

5 ml

5 g

0.5 g

The prepared beverage samples were given to 10 member panel of semi trained panelist by providing them with a five point hedonic scale score card to adjudge the quality of the product with respect to color, appearance, taste, flavor and overall acceptability. The evaluation was done at an interval of 10 days during the storage period. The panelists were drawn from the department of home science S. V. University, Tirupati. The data obtained was subjected to statistical analysis to find changes during storage period on physico-chemical and sensory characteristics of the product.

Table no 1 Mean values of chemical attributes during 30 days of storage period

Treatments	Brix					Acidity					P^H
	Days					Days					Days
	0	10	20	30	Mean	0	10	20	30	Mean	0	10	20	30	Mean
Sample A Sample B Sample C Sample A1 Sample B1 Sample C1	13.1 12.2 10.0 11.2 12.0 10.2	13.2 12.4 10.1 11.3 12.2 10.3	13.5 12.5 10.3 11.5 12.5 10.6	13.7 12.8 10.6 11.8 12.7 10.8	13.37 12.47 10.25 11.45 12.35 10.47	0.32 0.35 0.34 0.33 0.35 0.34	0.34 0.38 0.37 0.36 0.38 0.37	0.36 0.39 0.38 0.37 0.39 0.38	0.37 0.41 0.40 0.39 0.41 0.42	0.34 0.38 0.37 0.36 0.38 0.37	5.0 4.2 4.5 4.8 4.5 4.6	4.8 4.1 4.3 4.5 4.1 4.4	4.7 3.9 4.2 4.3 4.1 4.3	4.5 3.6 3.9 4.1 3.8 4.1	4.75 3.95 4.22 4.42 4.2 4.35

Table no 2 Mean values of Sensory attributes during 30 days of storage period

Treatments	Appearance				Colour				Taste				Flavour				Overall acceptability
	Days				Days				Days				Days				Days
	0	10	20	30	0	10	20	30	0	10	20	30	0	10	20	30	0	10	20	30	Mean
Sample A Sample B Sample C carbonated Sample A1 Sample B1 Sample C1	3.6 4.2 4.0 3.8 3.9 3.7	3.5 4.1 3.8 3.6 3.8 3.5	3.4 3.9 3.5 3.5 3.6 3.4	3.1 3.8 3.3 3.3 3.4 3.1	3.9 4.0 4.2 3.8 3.9 4.1	3.7 3.9 3.8 3.7 3.7 3.8	3.6 3.7 3.6 3.5 3.6 3.6	3.4 3.3 3.5 3.3 3.4 3.5	4.1 4.5 4.2 3.9 4.2 4.1	3.9 4.2 3.9 3.7 3.9 3.8	3.5 3.9 3.6 3.4 3.6 3.5	3.3 3.7 3.4 3.1 3.3 3.2	3.8 3.9 3.7 3.6 3.8 3.7	3.5 3.7 3.5 3.4 3.5 3.6	3.4 3.6 3.3 3.1 3.3 3.2	3.2 3.3 3.1 2.8 3.0 2.9	3.9 4.2 3.8 3.8 4.0 3.9	3.7 4.1 3.5 3.6 3.8 3.7	3.6 3.8 3.3 3.4 3.7 3.4	3.4 3.7 3.2 3.1 3.5 3.3	3.65 3.95 3.45 3.47 3.75 3.57

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

The present investigation was an attempt to develop WBP beverage by taking different proportion of whey and pomegranate juice extract with the addition of ginger extract and leaf powder. The formulated beverage neither contained any artificial flavoring and coloring agents nor any chemical preservatives nor stabilizes.

Graphical presentation of Mean values of chemical attributes during 30 days of storage period

Graph No: 1

Graph No: 2

Graph No: 3

Graphical presentation of Mean values of Sensory attributes during 30 days of storage period

Graph No; 4

Graph No; 5

Graph No; 6

Graph No; 7

Prepared beverages were stored at 6±1c and analyzed at 10 days interval. The data (table no 1) indicates that the storage period appreciably affected physicochemical parameters of the beverages. The TSS of the beverages gradually increases with the advancement of storage period in all the six variations. The initial TSS values of the beverages A, B, C, A1, B1, and C1 were 13.1⁰, 12.2⁰, 10.1⁰, 11.2⁰, 12.0⁰ and 10.2⁰ respectively. The highest value of TSS was recorded to be 13.37⁰Brix at the end of 30 days of storage for beverage A and lowest value of TSS recorded to be 10.6⁰ Brix for beverage B. Increase in TSS might be due to the solubilization of insoluble portion of the product (juice constituents) due to presence of acids. (Ascorbic and citric) during storage. (Sethi 1992)⁹ and Krishnaveni et al. (2001)⁶.

The acidity values was increased from 0.32 to 0.37 in sample A, 0.35 to 0.41 in sample B, 0.34 to 0.40 in sample C, 0.33 to 0.39 in sample A1, 0.35 to 0.41 in sample B1 and 0.34 to 0.42 in sample C1over a period of 30 days. This increase in acidity was due to conversion of lactose to lactic acid in whey and formation of other organic acids. This increase might also have been attributed to polyphenols present in pomegranate and their degradation. Some portion of protein also gets converted into amino acids. Similar results have been reported by Sikder et al., (2001)¹⁰ and Soliman et al. (1995)¹¹.

During 30 days of storage period the pH values of the beverage samples was decreased from 5.0 to 4.5 in the sample A, 4.2 to 3.6 in sample B, 4.5 to 3.9 in the sample C, 4.8 to 4.1 sample A1, 4.5 to 3.8 in sample B1 and 4.6 to 4.1 in sample C1 respectively. This fact is in accordance with the results obtained for acidities of different beverage samples as on increase in acidity of any sample its pH values correspondingly decreases. The pH values decrease was due to the production of organic acids and amino acids by the action of ascorbic acid and citric acid on sugar and protein content of the beverages. Lactose and protein are converted into lactic acid and amino acids which leads to increase in acidity and decrease in pH values of the beverages. Similar results of decrease in pH values were also observed in the RTS beverage developed by Sikder et al., (2001) ¹⁰and Kalra et al. (1991)⁵. The storage period had a significant effect on pH of beverages.

The average sensory scores of different attributes and overall acceptability for WBP beverage, with the increase in storage period sensory scores of all the attributes and overall acceptability decreases for all the beverages over a period of 30 days at 6±1C. However, the scores obtained for the beverage B containing 55 ml of whey, 40 ml of pomegranate juice, 5 ml of ginger extract, 5 g of sugar and 0.5 g of leaf powder remained higher for all attributes and overall acceptability.

The statistical analysis of the chemical characteristics and sensory attributes shows that, there was no significant difference in TSS of all the samples and significant difference at 0.01 levels in pH, appearance, colour, taste, flavour and overall acceptability of all the samples. Acidity of sample A, B and C had a significant difference at 0.05 levels.

CONCLUSION:

From the results it can be concluded that the whey based pomegranate beverage can be prepared with the blending of 55 ml of whey, 40 ml of pomegranate juice, and 5 ml of ginger extract, 5 g of sugar and 0.5 g of leaf powder. The prepared beverage can be stored safely at 6±1C with good consumer acceptance over a period of 30 days.

REFERENCES:

1. AOAC, 1995. Official Methods of Analysis. 6th Edn., Association of Official Analytical Chemists, Washington, DC., USA.

2. De Wit JN. Nutritional and Functional Characteristics of whey proteins in food products. Journal of dairy science. 81:597-608 (1998).

3. http://en.wikinedia.org/wiki/pomegranete

4. Indian Agricultural, 2005.

5. Kalra, S.K., D.K. Tandon, N. Garg and B.P. Singh, 1991. Quality evaluation of some market drinks. Indian Food Packer, 45: 40-53.

6. Krishnaveni, A., G. Manimegalai and R. Saravanakumar, 2001. Storage stability of jack fruit RTS beverage. J. Food Sci. Technol., 38: 601-602.

7. Marshall KR. Industrial isolation of milk proteins: Whey proteins in Developments in dairy chemistry proteins (Ed FOXPF) Applied science publishers, London, pp.339-373. (1982).

8. Oscar laureate sir Prof. Dr, Aman Medicinal secrets of your food.

9. Sethi V. Preparation and storage study of lime ginger cocktail at room and low temperature. Beverage food world 19 (12): 51 – 52 (1992)

10. Sikder B, Sarkar K, Ray PR, Ghatak PK Studies on shelf life of whey based mango beverages. Beverage Food World 28 (10): 53 – 54 (2001)

11. Soliman, M.A., E.A. Emave and A.E. Okasha, 1995. Studies on the browning inhibitors in banana butter-milk and whey beverages. Egy. J. Dairy Sci., 23: 11-29.

Received on 09.03.2010 Modified on 01.04.2010

Asian J. Research Chem. 3(3): July- Sept. 2010; Page 669-672