Fruits and browning- Testing on antioxidants

Introduction:
When oxygen comes into contact with cut or peeled fruits and vegetables, the
enzyme phenolase (phenol oxidase) catalyses the compound to form brown
pigments known as melanin. During food processing and storage, many polyphenol
are unstable due to the fact that they undergo chemical and biochemical reaction.
To prevent this browning of fruits and vegetables, antioxidant is used.
Aim:
To investigate the effectiveness of various antioxidant at inhibiting enzymatic
browning of fruits and some vegetables. The most effective antioxidant is the one
that prevents browning at a very low concentration.

Materials:
100ml of the following solutions:
- 1% ascorbic acid solution (Vitamin C)
- 1% citric acid solution
- 1% acetic acid solution
- 1% sodium sulphite NaSO
3

- 0.1% ascorbic acid solution (Vitamin C)
- 0.1% citric acid solution
- 0.1% acetic acid solution
- 0.1% sodium sulphite NaSO
3

- Distilled water
- Apple, potatoes, bananas

Apparatus:
- Beakers
- Tongs
- Knife
- Stopwatch
- Stirrer
- Petri dishes


Procedure
1. Prepare 100ml of the 6 solutions: a 1.0% solution and a 0.1% solution of each
of the 3 substances.
2. Cut the apple into equally size for 8 portions.
3. Place an untreated apple slice on a petri dish and label it Control.
4. Using tongs, dip another apple slice into one of the test solution for 30
seconds, place it on the petri dish and label it with the name of the solution.
5. Rinse the tongs and repeat the same procedure for the other 5 solutions.
6. Soak one apple slice in water for 30 seconds. Place it on a petri dish and label
it Water Soak.
7. Observe the slices every 10 minutes for one hour and record your
observations.
8. Evaluate the colour change on a scale of 0 to 5, 0- being no colour change
and 5 being the highest grade of brown.
9. Repeat step 2 to step 7 by changing the type of fruits.
10. Record all data in a table.

Results
Level of browning
No Treament
10
min
20
min
30
min
40
min
50
min
60
min
70
min
80
min
90
min
1 No treatment (control)
2 1% ascorbic acid
3 1% citric acid
4 1% acetic acid
5 1% sodium sulphite NaSO
3

6 0.1% ascorbic acid
7 0.1% citric acid
8 0.1% acetic acid
9 0.1% sodium sulphite
NaSO
3


10 Water soak

Colour scale
5 = completely dark brown
4 = fully covered light brown
3 = half-covered light brown
2 = some brown patches
1 = no browning present