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

The present investigation, entitled “Standardization and Sensory Evaluation of Sweet Orange (Citrus sinensis L.) Squash Blended with Herbal Extracts” was carried out in the Processing Laboratory, Department of Post-Harvest Management, College of Horticulture and Research Station, Sankara-Patan, Durg (C.G.) during the academic year 2024-25. The experiment was laid out in a Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with three replications, comprising seven different treatment combinations of sweet orange juice blended with herbal extracts. The investigated material compromised of seven treatments with six blending ratio i.e. To control (sweet orange 100%), T₁ (sweet orange juice 98% + ginger 1% + mint 1%), T2 (sweet orange juice 97% + ginger 2% + mint 1%), T3 (sweet orange juice 96% + ginger 3% + mint 1%), T4 (sweet orange juice 98% + lemongrass 1% + mint 1%), T5 (sweet orange juice 97% + lemongrass 2% + mint 1%), T6 (sweet orange juice 96% + lemongrass 3% + mint 1%), and replicated three times under Completely Randomized Design. Sweet orange fruits along with herbs such as ginger, lemongrass and mint were evaluated for their Sensory characteristics. Squash was prepared by blending sweet orange juice fortified with different proportions of these herbs and observations were recorded at 15-day intervals to assess the variation in sensory attributes during storage. The blended squash was subjected to sensory evaluation using the Hedonic rating scale and data pertaining to the changes in the product were systematically recorded throughout the entire storage period of 45 days.
Among the various treatments, the squash prepared with the recipe T6 (96% sweet orange juice + 3% lemongrass + 1% mint) sensory parameters, was rated the best in terms of taste (7.65), color (8.17), Appearance (7.44) flavor (6.25) and overall acceptability (7.71) on the Hedonic scale.