Nutritional Assessment of Guava for Quality Jelly Production

Guava (Psidium guajava L.) is a Vitamin C (ascorbic acid) rich fruit. Its production is quite high in Bangladesh but post-harvest life is very short. Farmers will benefited by producing different guava products like juice, jelly etc. and selling them to market for year round. The current study has been carried out to observe the nutritional composition of fresh guava, guava juice, and jelly for nutritive jelly production. Shelf life and sensory evaluation of guava and guava jelly were also evaluated. Fresh green guava of four varieties (Swarupkathi Peyera, Kazi Peyera, BAU-2 Peyera and BAU-19 Peyera) were collected from the Germplasm Center, Patuakhali Science and Technology University (PSTU), Bangladesh. The shelf-life (mean value) of fresh Guava, Guava juice, and Jelly were about 11, 9, and 142 days in ambient condition; 24, 30, and 213 days in refrigerated condition; and 42, 142, and 325 days in freezing condition, respectively. Kazi Peyara confined the highest percentage of ascorbic acid (195.59 mg/100g FW), total sugar (10.65 % FW), calcium (17.45 mg/100g), and phosphorus (34.63 mg/100g). However, BAU-19 Peyara contains the highest percentage of magnesium (20.15 mg/100g) and BAU-2 Peyara contains the highest percentage of potassium (392.1 mg/100g). The mean ascorbic acid content in guava juice (29.23 mg/100ml) and jelly (17.65 mg/100gm) were significantly lower compared to the fresh guava (192.77 mg/100gm) and also the ascorbic acid loss during storage was significant. The average score of different sensory parameters for fresh guava and guava Jelly were within the standard range. From the results, it can be concluded that guava is a good source of nutrients and quality jelly could be prepared from it.