Abstract            Volume:5  Issue-4  Year-2017         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The Opuntia ficus indica (OFI) fruits were obtained from Dindugal district, Tamil Nadu, India. The juice was extracted from fully ripened fruit. It had an average total soluble solids equivalent to 14.06º Brix. Before spray drying, a 1:1 dilution with distilled water was made to obtain a soluble solid content of 5.4ºBrix. Maltodextrin (MD) 32 gms and Arabic Gum 40 gms were added to the diluted juice mixed and filtered. The clear solution was spray dried using Labultima, model LU 222 advanced. The powder was obtained with the flow of air drying parallel to the material feeding. The drying parameters were Inlet temperature = 140ËšC; Outlet temperature = 70ËšC; Aspirator speed = 35 cu.m/hr; Feed pump speed = 2mL/min which were standardized for the experiment. The spray dried fruit powder was packed in metallized bioriented polypropylene bags at 24°C± 2° C and stored at room temperature (20-24°C) before being submitted to the physic-chemical analyses. The physic-chemical characteristics like X-ray diffraction, solubility test (0.57%), and bulk density (2.5g/ml), colour parameters and water absorption capacity (WAC) of fruit powder (29.6 ml) were determined. Hence the present study provides useful information about the spray drying of an under-utilised fruit to obtain a colourant that can be used for commercial food product development.

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