RESEARCH ARTICLE

The Effect of Pretreatment of Juice on the Propertiesand Composition of Jaggery

Zahid Hussain • Mohammad Islam • Zahoor Mohammad •

Khalid Mohammad Khan • Shahnaz Perveen •

Mohammad Afzal

Received: 10 September 2011 / Accepted: 28 April 2012 / Published online: 23 May 2012

� Society for Sugar Research & Promotion 2012

Abstract Conservation of the sucrose contents of the

jaggery helps to improve the color and shelf life. Light

golden color jaggery is the demand of market these days.

This color is developed by the chemicals which are haz-

ardous. In the present work light golden color jaggery was

prepared by the conservation of sucrose contents and

minimization of the activity of the polyphenol oxidase. The

activity of polyphenol oxidase was controlled by the

interaction of juice with gases like carbon dioxide, nitric

oxide, nitrogen dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sul-

fide in separate experiments. These activities were moni-

tored by the use of % pol, % brix and the color intensity of

the jaggery. The reasons for these activities were also

discussed in this communication.

Keywords Jaggery � Polyphenols �Polyphenol oxidase activity � Light golden color jaggery �Sucrose content analysis � Jaggery and polyphenol

Introduction

Jaggery or gur is a traditional sweetener and it is one of the

cottage industries in India and Pakistan. Jaggery is an

important sweetener in terms of the low prices, as raw

material for the white sugar industry and additional health

benefits. Only India produces 70 % of the total jaggery of

the world (Singh et al. 2009). There are three parameters

for the market value and consumer’s acceptability of the

jaggery, the color, flavor and the shelf life. Light golden

color jaggery is the most acceptable jaggery of the market.

This color is obtained by the hydrous powder which is

injurious to the health (Uppal et al. 2005). Recently our

group introduced a new method for the preparation of the

jaggery in the most acceptable color just by using pans of

the inert nature (Hussain et al. 2011).

The color, flavor and shelf life of the jaggery are cor-

related with the activity of the polyphenol oxidase and the

sucrose contents. There are literature reports of the

browning of the fruits due to the activity of the polyphenol

oxidase (Coseteng and Lee 1987; Kader et al. 1997; Jiang

2000). Polyphenol oxidase converts the phenols and poly-

phenols into oxidized forms which impart unwanted color

(James 1963; Fernandes et al. 2011). Polyphenol oxidase

also harms the sucrose contents and sucrose on hydrolysis

gives glucose which deteriorates color on caramelisation,

change the flavor and reduces the shelf life on

fermentation.

The present work is aimed to the preservation of the

color, flavor and lengthening of the shelf life of the jaggery.

It is based on preservation of the sucrose contents and

lowering of the activity of polyphenol oxidase by interac-

tion with gases like carbon dioxide, nitric oxide, nitrogen

dioxide, sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide. The authors

intend to extend this study to the simultaneous use of the

Z. Hussain (&) � M. Islam � Z. Mohammad

Department of Chemistry, Abdul Wali Khan University,

Mardan, Pakistan

e-mail: drzhussain@yahoo.com; hassaan2@super.net.pk

K. M. Khan (&)

H. E. J. Research Institute of Chemistry, International Center for

Chemical and Biological Sciences, University of Karachi,

Karachi 75270, Pakistan

e-mail: khalid.khan@iccs.edu

S. Perveen

PCSIR Laboratories Complex, Shahrah-e-Dr. Salimuzzaman

Siddiqui, Karachi 75280, Pakistan

M. Afzal

Department of Soil and Environmental Sciences, Khyber

Pakhtunkhwa Agriculture University, Peshawar, Pakistan

123

Sugar Tech (July-September 2012) 14(3):291–294

DOI 10.1007/s12355-012-0154-0

flue gases for the pretreatment and the evaporation of juice

for jiggery formation.

Material and Method

Jaggery was prepared using the juice of the C.P.77/400

variety of the sugar cane. The juice was extracted using

farmer’s crusher. The jaggery was prepared by the evapo-

ration of the juice in pans of 10 in. diameter and 2 in.

depth. The process was adopted as farmers’ uses for the

preparation of jaggery and mentioned in gur monograph

(Roy 1951). Each of the jaggery formation experiment was

carried out in triplicate. Each of the gas was prepared in a

laboratory scale generator in our laboratory using analyti-

cal grade pure chemicals. Gas treated jaggery/gur was

prepared using freshly extracted sugar cane juice in sepa-

rate experiments. The juice was treated with the gas by

bubbling of the gas in the juice in a PET bottle for 5 min.

The bottle was sealed after the gas treatment and was

placed for half an hour at 25 �C to ensure the interaction of

the gas. This treated juice was evaporated in a Teflon

coated pan. The evaporation was carried out using LPG as

a fuel. The analysis of the freshly prepared jaggery was

carried out for the pol value using a Polari meter with

sodium-vapor lamp and the brix was determined by the use

of ABBE refractometer with a crosshair reticule. The color

intensity of the jaggery solution was determined by the use

of Milton Roy’s Spectronic 20D.

The color intensity was calculated using the following

formula (Vickers et al. 2005).

Results and Discussion

Theoretical Basis of the Work

The shelf life, flavor and color of the jaggery are the

market-based and consumer demanded properties. These

properties are believed as improved by two ways, con-

trolling the activity of the polyphenol and preservation of

the sucrose contents. The polyphenol oxidase reacts with

the phenol contents of the phenols and converts these into

their oxidized form. These oxidized phenolics deteriorate

the color of the jaggery. The polyphenol oxidase is

believed as interacting with the sucrose and converts it into

the glucose and fructose. Increase in the glucose contents

harms color and reduce the shelf life. The glucose interacts

with the moisture contents and results spoilage (Chand

et al. 2011). The glucose passes through fermentation and

results the deterioration of the flavor and also shortens the

life of the crude sugar. In this work all these causes are

addressed by lowering the activity of the polyphenol oxi-

dase. The important measures for the sucrose loss mini-

mization include the use of inert surfaced container for the

evaporation of the juice and the treatment of juice with

the gases like CO2, NO, NO2, SO2 and H2S for reducing

the activity of the PPO. The effect of these on the sucrose

contents was monitored using the pol value.

Treatment of the Sugarcane Juice with CO2

The loss in sucrose contents and the deterioration of the

color of the jaggery are mainly due to the activity of

the polyphenol oxidase. There are literature reports of the

decrease in activity of the polyphenol oxidase on reaction

with the carbon dioxide. J. S. Chen et al. (1992) observed

that carbon dioxide interact with the protein of the poly-

phenol oxidase at high temperature and impair its function.

This results decrease in the activity of the PPO. The car-

bonation was carried out for the sugar cane clarification in

java (Honig 1959) and still in use in many countries (Rault

1960; Sheen et al. 2003). This practice is carried out in

sugar refining factories along with other processes and

chemicals.

In the present work carbon dioxide was bubbled in the

sugar cane juice keeping in mind the interaction of this gas

with the PPO. This was aimed to improve the color and

shelf life of jaggery. Carbon dioxide was produced by the

reaction of calcium carbonate with the acid and treated

with the freshly extracted juice. Results indicate that both

the pol value and the color of the jaggery/crude sugar were

improved due to this treatment of the juice. In addition to

the reaction of PPO with carbon dioxide another idea

behind the use of carbon dioxide was to replace the dis-

solved oxygen in the juice which inhibits the formation of

the oxidized forms of the phenolic compounds. These are

considered as responsible for the color deterioration of the

jaggery/crude sugar. There are literature reports of the

coating of some fruits for lowering the activity of PPO and

avoiding the browning of the color (Olivas et al. 2006;

Fernandes et al. 2011). In addition, lowering of the PPO

Color Intensity ¼ 1000� Mean absorbance at 420 nm�Mean absorbance at 720 nmð Þ10

Cell size cmð Þ � Sucrose concentration of juice

292 Sugar Tech (July-September 2012) 14(3):291–294

123

activity also minimizes the sucrose losses. The sucrose

losses can also be minimized by the pH of the media.

Bubbling of carbon dioxide in the sugar cane juice results

an acidic pH in the range of 4.5–5.00. This pH is consid-

ered as an ideal for preserving the sucrose contents (Panpae

et al. 2008).

Treatment of the Sugarcane Juice with NO

Sugar cane juice was treated with nitric oxide for

improving the properties of the jaggery. This treatment was

to conserve the sucrose contents by controlling the activity

of polyphenol oxidase. The results of this study are given in

Table 1 and can be seen from the results that the color of

the jaggery produced from the nitric oxide treated juice is

the best among all the present investigation. It is due to the

effective interaction of the nitric oxide with the polyphenol

oxidase of the juice. Although the solubility of NO in

aqueous solutions is very small still it works for the

deactivation of the polyphenol oxidase by the replacement

of the dissolved oxygen through physical phenomena. It

may also interact with the PPO due to its unique structure

and block the active sites for reaction with the sucrose and

phenolics of the crude sugar. This inactivation of the PPO

by the nitric oxide might be due to complex formation

reaction. It is believed that nitric oxide impairs the activity

of polyphenol oxidase by its interaction with copper of this

enzyme. It may also react with the dissolved oxygen;

however, this idea is not supported by the experiments. To

investigate this interaction, the juice was also treated with

the nitrogen dioxide in separate experiments. It was

observed that the reaction of the nitrogen dioxide with the

sugar cane juice results preservation of the sucrose contents

which is clear from the greater pol value of the crude sugar.

While, there is formation of the compounds which harm

the flavor of the crude sugar.

In case of the reaction of nitric oxide the formation of

the nitrogen dioxide is not supported by theses results due

to no change in the flavor of resulting sugar. These are

supported by the literature reports of similar nature i.e. the

inhibition of the browning of fruits by the NO (Duan et al.

2007; Li-Qin et al. 2009).

Treatment of the Sugarcane Juice with SO2

The effect of sulfur dioxide on the color and pol value was

investigated by bubbling the gas in the juice in a PET bottle.

It was placed for 30 min at the ambient temperature. The

juice was evaporated for the jaggery formation in a Teflon

pan. The color intensity of this jaggery was determined by

dissolving 1 g of the jaggery in distilled water. It can be

observed from Table 1 that the color intensity of this jaggery

is better than that prepared both, by conventional method and

in the Teflon pan without treatment of the juice with sulfur

dioxide. It can be seen from the Table 1 that the pol value is

highest of all in the present investigation. This indicates that

sulfur dioxide also lowers the activity of the PPO and con-

serves the sucrose contents. In addition direct interaction

with the PPO is one of the reasons for this activity, the change

in pH which is helpful in the sucrose conservation (Panpae

et al. 2008) and lowering the chance of the oxidation of

polyphenols. Sulfur dioxide is used since long for the

decolorization of the sugar cane juice (Carter 1954). Addi-

tion of the sulfur dioxide results in the formation of sulphates

and the formation of organo-sulfur compounds which are

considered as potential threat (Thomas et al. 1944). There-

fore, it is not recommended for improving the color of jag-

gery but presented for comparison.

Treatment of the Sugarcane Juice with H2S

The use of hydrogen sulphide was due to the acidic nature

of the aqueous solution of the hydrogen sulfide and the

interaction of the sulfide with the polyphenol oxidase. The

acidic pH is helpful in the minimization of sucrose loses

(Panpae et al. 2008) and the reaction of polyphenol with

this gas is believed to lower its activity and helps to

improve the color. It can be seen from the Table 1 that the

sucrose contents are better than the untreated but the color

intensity is greater. This might be due to the formation of

some of the sulfur containing compounds.

Conclusion

The pretreatment of the sugarcane juice with the gases was

found to improve the color and sucrose contents of the

Table 1 Investigation of the effect of the pretreatment of sugar cane

juice on the properties of jaggery

Sample I. D. Pol % Sucrose % Brix % Color

intensity

Conventional 75.00 ± 0.04 75.00 ± 0.04 12.50 ± 0.2 310096.15

Teflon

untreated

84.40 ± 0.06 84.40 ± 0.06 12.70 ± 0.1 171800.95

Carbon

dioxide

90.20 ± 0.03 90.20 ± 0.03 12.80 ± 0.1 168094.22

Nitric oxide 93.40 ± 0.03 93.40 ± 0.03 13.50 ± 0.1 148822.27

Nitrogen

dioxide

86.20 ± 0.05 86.20 ± 0.05 12.00 ± 0.2 179814.39

Sulfur

dioxide

95.00 ± 0.04 95.00 ± 0.04 13.20 ± 0.1 269261.70

Hydrogen

sulfide

92.00 ± 0.04 92.00 ± 0.04 12.50 ± 0.1 331551.95

Sugar Tech (July-September 2012) 14(3):291–294 293

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jaggery. Among the gases nitric oxide was found to be the

best which gives jaggery of the best color and better

sucrose contents. This is expected to increase the shelf life

of the jaggery due to relatively less glucose contents. The

results of the carbon dioxide were found nearer in terms of

the color intensity. In case of the sulfur dioxide the sucrose

contents were found maximum but due to the environ-

mental hazards in terms of the sulfur containing com-

pounds, the sulfur dioxide or hydrogen sulfide are not

recommended. The use of carbon dioxide and nitric oxide

are recommended for the preparation of better quality

jaggery.

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