CENTRAL FOOD TECHNOLOGICAL RESEARCH INSTITUTE, MYSORE 570 020

PREPARATION OF AMLA PRESERVE AND CANDY

The process for making candy is the same as that employed for preparing
preserves, with only this difference that the fruit is impregnated with a higher
percentage of sugar or glucose. A certain amount of invert sugar or glucose is
substituted in place of canesugar. The total sugar content of impregnated fruit is
kept at 75% to prevent fermentation. The method for preparation of Amla preserve
is given below:

Select large sized fruit for making a preserve. Wash them in water. Prick
them with stainless steel, silver or wooden needles and place them in 2% common
salt solution. Raise the strength of the solution progressively by 2% on subsequent
days until it reaches 8%. Wash the fruits and place them in freshly prepared 8%
brine for a week. This treatment would remove most of the astringency. Wash the
fruits again. Ordinary iron equipment should not be used, as on account of the
reactions of tannins the fruit would go black. Blanch the Amlas in 2% alum
solution until they become soft. Care should be taken to prevent breaking or
cracking of the segments in the process.

Take sugar equal to half the rate of amla. Place sugar and amla in
alternative layers in a vessel and leave the mass for 24 hours undisturbed. During
this period the fruit would give out sufficient water and sugar would go into the
solution. Next boil the mass for a few minutes to raise the syrup strength from
about 36 to 38øBrix to about 59-60ºBrix by adding more sugar. Also add a small
quantity citric or tartaric acid or 25% by weight of invert sugar or corn syrup.
After boiling let the fruits remain in the syrup for another 24 hours. On the third
day raise the strength of the syrup to 70øBrix and let the product stand for a week.
The preserve gets ready for canning now.

It is to be candied, raise the brix to 75º and again keep for one week before
canning.
AMLA: SYRUPS AND CONCENTRATES
The Second World War gave a great impetus for the preparation of Vitamin
C concentrates and syrups from several sources such as rose hips, black currant,
etc. Amla is grown very abundantly in India and is a very rich source of vitamin
C. It contains 600 to 900 mgm of ascorbic acid per 100 gm pulp.

Among the various methods tried for the preparation of a suitable water
extract of the fruit rich in Vitamin C, steaming the fruit at 15 lbs pressure for 20
minutes followed by mashing the steamed fruit in cold water and squeezing the
extract through cloth, gave the best results, the total recovery of ascorbic acid
being about 81%. By employing a method of cold extraction in which the fruit is
first disintegrated finely in presence of added water in a laboratory warring
blender, and then squeezed through cloth to get the extract, the recovery of
ascorbic acid was as high as 95%. Both the water extract prepared as above and
the pure juice of the fruit are highly astringent in taste and is successfully removed
by treating the fresh fruit (prior to the preparation of extract) in 2% brine for a
week. From the final extract containing about 65% of total ascorbic acid, a syrup
of 50ºBrix having 119 mgms. percent of ascorbic acid is obtained. Storage trials
indicate that even after one year's storage 2 to 2¬ ozs. of syrup is enough to meet
the daily average requirements on vitamin C of human beings.

Concentrates having over 1000 mgms of ascorbic acid per 100 ccs have been
prepared by concentrating the extract under reduced pressure. The loss of Vitamin
C during this process is about 5%.

For Technology and Technical assistance please contact

THE DIRECTOR, CFTRI, MYSORE-570 020

PHONE: 0821-2514534, FAX: 0821-2515453
E-MAIL: ttbd@cftri.res.in; WebPage: www.cftri.com