Formulation Development of a Nutraceutical Product Comprising Manilkara zapota Fruit Pulp

The fresh fruit pulp of the plant Manilkara zapota belonging to family Sapotaceae is nutritious. However the pulp if stored at room temperature for 24 hours or more is easily perishable and succumbs degradation and hence in order to stabilize it, an attempt was made to develop a solid nutraceutical product. The ripe fruits of the plant Manilkara zapota were collected from the local garden from the coastal regions of Maharashtra, India, further processed and freeze dried. The product so obtained was subjected to evaluation for its nutritional value such as antioxidant value, elemental analysis etc. as well as for safe consumption using Animal studies. The results revealed that the fruit pulp on freeze drying increased the stability of the nutritional components. The product was found to be safe for oral consumption even upto a dose of 5000 mg/KG of the animal weight. The research thereby concluded that the nutritional fruits of the various regions which if stored at room temperature could be perishable or may not even be stable at refrigeration temperature for longer times can be made available in natural form to the consumers if appropriate stabilization techniques are used rather than using irrelevant and huge concentrations of preservatives. This shall also provide the local gardeners a huge monitory returns and aid in organic farming thereby maintaining the health of the consumers naturally.