Vol. 9, Special Issue 9, Part Q (2025)

The present study was undertaken to investigate the physio-chemical properties and storage stability of mulberry-aloe vera blended squash. Fully ripe mulberry fruits and fresh aloe vera leaves were processed into juices, which were blended in six proportions (90:10, 80:20, 70:30, 60:40, 50:50, and 40:60) following a factorial completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications. The formulations were standardized at 35% juice content, 45°Brix TSS, spice extract, and 600 ppm sodium benzoate. The squash samples were stored at room temperature, and observations were recorded at 0, 30, 60, and 90 days of storage. Results revealed that mulberry juice contained significantly higher levels of TSS (15.98°B), ascorbic acid (19.43 mg/100 g), reducing sugars (8.54%), total sugars (11.17%), total phenolics (185.35 mg GAE/100 g), flavonoids (118.45 mg QE/100 g), antioxidant activity (98.93%), and anthocyanins (104.90 mg/100 g), compared to aloe vera juice, which exhibited lower nutritional values. Increasing the proportion of aloe vera in the blends led to a reduction in TSS, sugars, ascorbic acid, phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidant activity, and anthocyanins. Storage studies indicated a gradual decline in ascorbic acid, phenolics, flavonoids, antioxidants, and anthocyanins, while reducing and total sugars increased, and titratable acidity decreased significantly over 90 days. Among the treatments, T₁ (90% mulberry: 10% aloe vera) consistently retained maximum nutritional quality and sensory acceptability throughout storage, while aloe vera-rich blends exhibited lower stability. The study concludes that mulberry-aloe vera squash, particularly mulberry-dominant blends, can serve as a novel functional beverage with good nutritional retention, storage stability, and consumer appeal, offering scope for commercialization and value addition in the fruit processing sector.