Production Technology for the Preparation of Wild Apricot Fruit Sweet Vermouth Ghan Shyam A* and Joshi VK Department of Food Science and Technology, India Abstract Introduction: Wild apricot fruit (Prunus armenica L.) grows naturally in hilly areas of northern India. The fruit is highly acidic, fibrous but low in TSS (°B) and thus, not utilized commercially. Materials and methods: Wild apricot vermouth was prepared having different alcohol levels (15,17 and 19%), different sugar levels (8,10 and 12 °B) and spices and herbal extract levels (2.5 and 5.0%). Results and discussion: Out of three different alcohol levels used, the highest TSS, ethanol, higher alcohols and total esters were found in 19% alcohol level vermouth whereas, total sugars, titratable acidity and total phenols were recorded in 15% alcohol level wild apricot vermouth. Out of three different sugar level used, vermouth having 12% sugar had the highest TSS, reducing sugars, total sugars and total esters as well as total carotenoids. Further, 5% spices extract had more pronounced effect on TSS, total sugars, titratable acidity, total esters and total phenols than 2.5% spices level. Conclusion: The base wine contained residual sugars, desirable acidity, proper amount of TSS, low volatile acidity and satisfactory amount of tannins and total esters and hence was found suitable for vermouth preparation. Based on physic-chemical quality characteristics, a product having 8% sugar, 17% alcohol and 5% spices extract was adjudged to be best by the judges. Keywords: Wild apricot fruit; Base wine; Spices and herbal extract; Vermouth Introduction Wild apricot fruit (Prunus armenica L.) is a drupe and is found growing naturally in hilly areas of northern India [1]. These include the major parts of Jammu & Kashmir; Kinnaur, Kullu, Chamba, Lahul- Spiti districts of Himachal Pradesh and the hilly areas of Uttar Pradesh [2,3]. The fruits are rarely eaten fresh. The fruit contains about 81 percent pulp and is also a good source of nutrients viz., vitamins, sugar, acid, TSS, vitamin C, protein and minerals mainly phosphorous, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron. But the fruit is not as popular as fresh cultivated fruit. Being more acidic (acidity 1.6-3.4% as MA) and fibrous thus, has no market value [2,4]. The tribal people of the area utilize the major portion of the crop to prepare distilled beverage using crude technology, which completely lacks in nutrients and even have considerably higher methanol content. These defects are due to lack of scientific technology adopted by them in preparation of such beverages. To prepare wild apricot wine, a process has been standardized where in a dilution of 1:2 (pulp: water) was optimized to prepare wine of acceptable physic-chemical and sensory quality [5,6]. A wine containing spices and herb is called vermouth. Preparation technique of vermouth has been optimized from other fruits also, like sand pear, plum and apples [7]. But there is no information on the suitability of this fruit for the preparation of vermouth nor there is any documentation of a method to prepare such a wine. Therefore, a study was made to standardize the technique to prepare vermouth from wild apricot fruit. Materials and methods The fruits of wild apricot were procured from Kinnaur Distt. of Himachal Pradesh and were converted into pulp. The pulp was stored with 2000ppm KMS and was employed for fermentation after removal of KMS by heating. Cane sugar and di-Ammonium hydrogen phosphate (DHAP) used to ameliorate the must for preparation of base wine was procured from local market. Pectinase enzyme used was manufactured by M/S Triton Chemicals, Crimson Publishers Wings to the Research Research Article * 1 Corresponding author: Ghan Shyam Abrol, Department of Food Science and Technology, India Submission: January 25, 2019 Published: March 21, 2019 Volume 3 - Issue 4 How to cite this article: Ghan S A, Joshi V. Production Technology for the Preparation of Wild Apricot Fruit Sweet Vermouth. Nov Tech Nutri Food Sci. 3(4). NTNF.000569.2019. DOI: 10.31031/NTNF.2019.03.000569 Copyright@ Ghan Shyam Abrol, This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited. ISSN: 2640-9208 284 Novel Techniques in Nutrition and Food Science