Abstract:
Canistel is an underutilized fruit available in Sri Lanka. It has potential nutritional value
and various health benefits due to the presence of functional compounds in it. Therefore,
muffins from canistel flour were prepared in various proportions together with wheat flour
as a remedy for reducing gluten and minimising the wastage of nutritionally rich canistel
fruit. In this study, the properties of muffins prepared with different ratios of wheat flour
and canistel flour, such as 100/0, 80/20, 70/30, 60/40, and 50/50%, were evaluated.
AOAC and AACC standard methods were used to determine the physical and nutritional
properties of developed muffins. The Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS)
was used to perform a statistical analysis of the data. The nutritional factors such as the
moisture, ash, protein, fat, fibre, carbohydrates, and energy were discovered to differ
between 14.91 - 15.49%, 1.39 - 1.62%, 6.01 - 7.29%, 13.37 - 15.80%, 6.07 - 10.67%,
49.13 - 58.25% and 435.87 - 459.63 J/Kg, respectively. All physical and nutritional
properties exhibited substantial variations (p<0.05) among treatments. According to the
result obtained, the physical and nutritive features of treatment C (Tc), that is 70:30 wheat:
canistel flour blend, were selected as the most effective muffin. Therefore, this
undervalued canistel fruit could be utilized to prepare baked goods blended with wheat
flour, perhaps contributing to gluten-free, healthy baked goods.
