Utilization of Cashew Apples for the Development of Processed Products A.M. NANJUNDASWAMY, G. RADHAKRISHNIAH SETTY and M. V. PATWARDHAN Central Food Technological Research Institute Mysore-570 013, Karnataka, India Abstract Cashew apples are an important by-product of cashewnut industry. Most of the fruits, at present, are not utilised in the country. Cashew apples con- tain astringent and acrid principles which produce an unpleasant biting sen- sation on the tongue and throat when eaten as such. The fruits are highly susceptible to injury and rapid microbial deterioration. ‘These factors to- gether with the difficulties experienced in collection of fruits have come in the way of commercial utilization of this nutritious fruit, It has bea found possible to remove astringent principles by simple methods like steaming, brine curing or by chemical treatment and then utilize the fruit for conversion into several edible products. These products include clari- fied and cloudy cashew apple juice, cashew apple juice blended with other fruit juices and pulps like lime, pineapple, orange, mango, and papaya, cashew apple juice concentrate, cashew apple preserve and candy. cashew apple jam, cashew apple mixed fruit jam, cashew apple pickle and chutney etc. Work done on the development of these products and their storage behaviour are reviewed and presented in this paper. Cashew apples are an important by-product of cashewnut industry. The yield of cashew apple is four to five times that of cashewnut. Most of the fruits at preset are not utilised in the country except for a small quantity (about 15°%) used for direct consumption or for production of country liquor (Sondhi, 1962). Cashew apples contain astringent and acrid principles which produce an unpleasant biting sensation on the tongue and throat whien eaten as such. The fruits are highly susceptible to injury and rapid microbial Adcterioration. These factors together with the difficulties experienced in collection of fruits have come in the way of commercial utilisation of this nutritious fruit. Investigations have been carried out at Central Food Technological. Research Institute to utilise these fruits for conversion into several ediblo products, These products include clarified and cloudy cashew apple juice,” blended juice beverages, cashew apple juice concentrate, cashew apple pre- serve and candy, cashew apple jam and mixed fruit jam, pickles, chumey152 CASHEW RESEARCH AND DEVELOPMENT canned products etc. Work done on the development of these products and their storage behaviour are reviewed and presented in this paper. Characteristics of the fruit; Cashew apple is a swollen peduncle to which the nut is attached. It is a soft but fibrous juicy fruit. It possesses exotic flavour characteristic of the fruit. Based on external colour of the fruit cashew apples can be broadly classified into Red and Yellow varieties. (Sondhi, 1962). Data on the physico-chemical composition of the juice just expressed from ripe Red and Yellow varieties of cashew apples from Kerala and Kar- nataka region are presented in table 1. The fruit weight varies from 26 to 50 g and the yield of juice 60-70 per cent. The pH of the juice ranges from 3.9 to 4.1. The total soluble solid contents ranges 12-13 per cent and the acidity from 0.2 to 0.35 per cent. The juice is rich in vitamin C and it ranges from 120 to 200 mg/100 g. The tannin content is between 0.3 to 0.5 per cent. The astringent and acrid taste of the fruit has been attributed to its tannin and an oily substance present in the fruit although the nature of the oily sub- stance is not identified (Jain, Das and Girdharilal, 1954). Taste 1. Physico-Chemical Composition of Cashew Apple Juice Kerala Karnataka Physico-chemical a eniaanes characteristics Red Yellow Red Yellow Sruits fruits Sruits fruits Fruit weight (g) 50.2 50.5 26.1 46.2 Juice yield % Nd 72.4 69.8 72.2 pH 3.9 4.0 3.9 4.1 Total soluble solids % 12.6 U8 12.3 12.2 Acidity (as malic acid) % 0.19 0.20 0.35 0.32 True ascorbic acid (mg/100 g) M7 126 200 153 Total sugars % 8.7 8.3 8.4 8.0 Total tannins % 0.34 0.35 0.55 0.45 Leucodelphinidin has been identified as the major polyphenol consti- tuent of cashew apple juice by Sastry et al. (1962). Ascorbic acid and totalCASHEW APPLE UTILIZATION 153 polyphenol content are the two important factors from the point of view of processing cashew apples. Sastry et al. (1962) reported about the regional variation in the tannins and ascorbic contents of red and yellow varieties of cashew apples (Table 2). The tannin content varied from 0.1 to 0.7 per cent. Hence the gelatin requirement may vary depending upon the tannin content during clarification of the juice. The ascorbic acid content varied from 170- 306 mg/100 g. Tapit 2. Regional Variation in Tannin and Ascorbic Acid Contents of Cashew Apple (Red and Yellow Varieties) Tannins in expressed Ascrobie acid Region No. of juice (g/100 ce) in expressed samples —§ ————_—___-_—— juice analysed Total True (mg/100ec) Mysore 28 «0.4 — 0.7 0.30 — 0.50 180 — 250 Ullal 20 0.32 — 0.69 0.12 — 0.50 192 — 306 Trichur 18 0.10 — 0.28 0.01 —0.10 170 — 250 Removal of astringent and acrid principles : One of the major problems in the utilisation of cashew apple for edible purposes is its astringent and acrid principles. Hence various methods have been tried to remove these unagreeable principles, Out of these three methods have been found to be satisfactory in the preparation of different products (Jain et al. 1951 and Jain, Das and Girdharilal, 1954). These include (i) steaming of the fruit for 5 minutes under the steam pressure of 5 psi and subsequently thorough washing of the steamed fruits with cold water (ii) cooking of the fruit for 5 minutes in boiling solution of common salt (2%) and (iii) by addition of required quantity of gelatin solution to the juice expressed from the fresh fruit. Effect of these treatments on the quality of the expressed juice are pre- sented in table 3. Though the juice obtained from the fruit cooked in brine was almost devoid of astringency it was saltish in taste and lacked the charac- teristic flavour. In the case of steamed fruit, the juice obtained had slight astringency but had good flavour. They showed that even this slight astrin- gency could be eliminated by the addition of small: quantity of gelatin to the expressed juice. Chakrabarthy (1961) reported higher recovery (68%) of juice by employ- ing screw type juice extractor than that obtained by basket press (38%). The