~ 1796 ~  Journal of Pharmacognosy and Phytochemistry 2018; 7(1): 1796-1802             E-ISSN: 2278-4136 P-ISSN: 2349-8234 JPP 2018; 7(1): 1796-1802 Received: 01-11-2017 Accepted: 02-12-2017   NS Thakur Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Nancy Thakur Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Hamid Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Pradeep Kumar Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Abhimanyu Thakur Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Correspondence Hamid Department of Food Science and Technology, Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan, HP, India Formulation and optimization of vitamin C rich ready-to-serve juice based beverage from wild aonla fruits and its quality evaluation during storage NS Thakur, Nancy Thakur, Hamid, Pradeep Kumar and Abhimanyu Thakur Abstract The present investigations were conducted to develop vitamin C rich RTS beverage from wild aonla (Phyllanthus emblica L.) fruits. Different treatment combinations of juice (10 %, 12 %, 14 % and 16 %) and TSS (12 o B and 15 o B) were tried to standardize proper combination for RTS beverage. Eight treatment combinations for the preparation of wild aonla drink were tried and drink recipe (T7) with 14 per cent juice was found to be best on the basis of its some physico-chemical characteristics like TSS (15 o B), titratable acidity (0.42 %), pH (4.20), ascorbic acid (61.38 mg/100 g), total phenols (2.17 mg/g) and with highest sensory scores for colour (8.00), body (7.92), taste (8.10), aroma (7.90) and overall acceptability (7.95). Further standardized product was packed in PET (polyethylene terephthalate) and glass bottles under ambient (20-25 o C) and refrigerated temperature (4-7 o C) conditions for six months. Drink could be stored safely for a period of six months under both storage conditions and also in both packaging materials with minimum changes in chemical and sensory attributes. However, comparatively minimum changes in drink packed in glass bottle and stored under refrigerated storage conditions were observed as compared to PET bottle. Keywords: wild aonla, vitamin C, RTS, quality evaluation, storage, antioxidant properties Introduction Wild aonla (Phyllanthus emblica L.) or Indian gooseberry belongs to family Euphorbiaceae and is indigenous to tropical South East Asia, particularly in Central and Southern India (Parmar and Kaushal, 1982) [1] from where it spread to Sri Lanka, Malaysia and China. It is widely distributed in Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh. Although the wild aonla is widely distributed in the forests of HP up to an elevation of 1450 m above mean sea level (Parmar and Kaushal, 1982) [1] , but there are no records of its area and production. Aonla fruit is a rich source of ascorbic acid, phenols, sugars, pectin, starch and minerals (Nath et al., 1992) [2] , besides fruit contains about 20 times more vitamin C than the citrus fruits. It is used in Ayurvedic and Unani systems of Indian medicines. This fruit is acrid, cooling, refrigerant, diuretic and laxative. It is useful in anaemia, artherosclerosis, cough, diarrhoea, dysentry, dyspepsia, haemorrhages, leucorrhoea and jaundice. It possesses antibacterial, anticarcinogenic, antiemetic, antioxidative, antipyretic, antitumour, antiviral, cardiotonic, expectorant activities (Singh and Singh, 2014) [3] . However, it is not consumed much as fresh fruit as it is highly acidic and astringent in taste. Therefore, it is necessary to convert the aonla juice into certain beverages before it can be consumed. But scattered information is available in the literature with respect to the development of value added products from wild aonla. As the nutritive value of fruit based beverages is much more than the synthetic products, which are available in the market throughout the country. If synthetic drinks can be substituted with the fruit juice, it would be beneficial to the consumers as well as fruit growers. Therefore, Keeping in view the availability of this fruit in the forests of HP and importance with respect to its quality characteristics, such as natural antioxidants especially vitamin C and phenols, the present studies were under taken with the objective to develop RTS beverage from this underutilized fruit and to study effect of storage on its chemical constituents. Material and methods The mature fruits of Phyllanthus emblica L. procured from Chandesh area of Mandi district of Himachal Pradesh in the year 2015-16 and used for various physico-chemical analysis and juice extraction.