Abstract

Blood fruit is one among the lesser known and underutilized fruit plant which has a rich source of antioxidant and possesses immense nutritive and medicinal value but so far systematic studies on various physico-chemical and nutritional properties of blood fruit are scarce. Therefore, a study was conducted during 2017 to 2019 at the North Eastern Hill University, Meghalaya, India to analyze the physico-chemical characteristics of blood fruit for further studies. The fresh fruits were collected from orphan plant from Chitoktak, Tura, West Garo Hills, Meghalaya. They were analyzed for the quality parameters using standard methods and recorded a nutrient of 14.50 °brix TSS, 7.14 % total sugar, 4.54 % reducing sugar, 0.26% total titratable acidity, 5.33 mg/100g ascorbic acid, 7.60 % protein and 138.42 IU β-Carotene (vitamin-A). The fruit has one of the rich sources of carbohydrates (8.68 %) and anthocyanin (195.93mg/100g pulp of total monomeric anthocyanin). The fruit also has trace amount of starch (0.23 g/100 g). The high nutritional value of blood fruit indicates good potential for exploration and value-added products like wine and juice can be processed for consumption during off season.