Evaluating the Potential of Natural extracts as a Fruit Wash

 

Srijoni Pahari, Srikrishnan S, Suneetha V

School of Biosciences and Technology, VIT University, Vellore, Tamil Nadu, 632014, India

 

ABSTRACT:

Cleaning agents are substances used to remove dirt. They are used in different ways for different things and have a different name. Most of them are made with the motive to kill microbes. With the increase in the amount of technology and needs in everyone’s lives we have been looking for more quantity than quality. People have found different ways to sell things in any way possible that they have started playing with food. For example, apples have a layer of wax for showing a shiny appearance for selling them.[3] Other fruits have been given chemical injections for giving more quantity of the fruit while the quality has gone down miserably. Before we were able to eat the outer layer of fruits, but now all we eat is wax and chemicals. Fruit wash is a cleaning product which is used to remove dirt wax and chemicals from fruits. The point of making these fruit washes is to remove the chemicals by using organic and natural substances and reduce the side effects. [8] [9] In our study we are testing the effect of different natural extracts (with various antibacterial and antioxidant properties) on the microbial growth by checking the Optical density of the washed water sample after adding the extracts. [10]

 

 

 

INTRODUCTION:

The removal of bacteria and other contaminants has been an important concern before consuming any type of food, especially fruits and vegetables as they nearly make up 60% of the food in an average human being’s meal. Fruit washes are products which are used to remove these bacteria and other contaminants on the layer. [6] Though they are not strong enough to remove the chemicals inside the fruit, but they do remove all of the contaminants outside it. Fruit ripening usually happens by factors like temperature and pressure. But in a few cases, there are bacteria which help in ripening of these fruits. Washing them off won’t be our concern because fruits will be consumed after they ripen and after they do these bacteria are not necessary anymore.[2] So, these fruit washes will be effective enough to remove at least 99% of these microbes.

 

The existing fruit washes in the market are a combination of different materials and most of them comprise of the same ingredients as the other ones. Each one of them will be of a separate extract and the rest will be a combination of the existing ones.

 

MATERIALS AND METHODS:

Fruits were collected from Vellore fruit market. The fruits collected were plums, apples and grapes. They were collected and stored at room temperature in the open and used. 

 

Natural extracts must be prepared for being added to the water samples to perform the OD tests. For the preparation of the extracts the following have to be done:

 

Rose water extract:

Preparation of rose water is done in the easiest way possible. Rose petals are collected from the flower. They must be freshly picked. These rose petals are put in a saucepan and boiling water is added to these petals. The water should be steaming hot not boiling hot. [1]

 

Rose water is also readily available in shops and has been prepared by the same process.

 

Lemon:

This is just the squeezed-out juice of lemons. It is the usual thing done to prepare lemon juice. Here we are using the citrus property of the fruit to check its efficiency in cleaning.

 

This can also be done by preparation of lemon extract which is done by adding grain alcohol with lemon peels and keeping it for a week with regular shaking. But we are going to test the properties of the juice of the inner fruit as the properties of lemon extract have already been proved and they are a potential material for a fruit wash.

 

Sandalwood:

Sandalwood is used in the form of powder here so that it can dissolve in the water easily and show faster results when compared to oils which are immiscible. It is prepared by adding 0.1g of sandalwood powder to 10ml of water.

 

Instruments Required:

Incubator:

To incubate the water samples for potential microbial growth.

 

Digital Colorimeter:

To check the Optical Density of the water samples at regular intervals

 

Methods:

The fruits which were collected are thoroughly washed with distilled water. The water used for washing is collected and the OD is checked using a digital colorimeter. This water is made into eight different parts to test the effect of the extracts. These extracts and solutions are added to check to what extent they decrease the bacterial growth.

If they have a high efficiency of killing these microbes they could be used as a material for an organic fruit wash.

 

All of these test tubes along with the control tube are kept in the incubator for two hours. The incubation is done for the maintenance and growth of the microbes at appropriate conditions. After two hours of incubation the OD of the incubated samples are checked again. Then to each sample the extract is added in different combinations as follows:

 

Table 1 Composition of the test tubes

Test Tube No.	Composition
1	Water sample (Control-10ml)
2	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml)
3	Water sample(10ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)
4	Water sample(10ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml)
5	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)
6	Water sample(10ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)
7	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml)
8	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)

 

After adding all of the extracts the test tubes are kept inside the incubator again and the OD is measured at regular intervals of time.

 

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION:

Initial OD Values:

The water sample collected after washing the fruits is taken for OD measurement. Before adding the extracts, the OD of the samples were measured to be 0.11.

 

Table 2 OD values of the samples

Test Tube no.	Composition	OD at 0	OD after 1.5 hrs	OD after 3 hrs	OD after 4.5 hrs	OD after 6 hrs
1	Water sample (Control-10ml)	0.11	0.11	0.11	0.11	0.10
2	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml)	0.11	0.09	0.08	0.06	0.05
3	Water sample(10ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.13	0.12
4	Water sample(10ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml)	0.16	0.14	0.10	0.10	0.10
5	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)	0.16	0.15	0.13	0.12	0.12
6	Water sample(10ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)	0.14	0.14	0.14	0.11	0.11
7	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml)	0.13	0.11	0.09	0.08	0.08
8	Water sample(10ml) + Rose water (0.5ml) + Sandalwood solution(0.5ml) + Lemon extract(0.5ml)	0.15	0.14	0.12	0.10	0.09

 

After adding the extracts, the OD values are as follows:

 

Test Tube 1:

The first test tube is the control tube which contains only the washed water sample. The initial OD of the sample was 0.11 and even after 6 hours it remained the same as expected. This is just the water with the microbes and no other extracts or reagents.

 

 

Fig.1 Test tube 1

 

 

Fig.2 Test tube 2

 

Test Tube 2:

The second test tube consists of 10ml of the water sample and 0.5 ml of rose water. The initial OD at time 0 was found to be 0.11 and after 6 hours it reduced to 0.05. This shows that it is highly efficient when compared to the time. Rose water’s efficiency is about 56.5%.

 

 

Fig.3 Test tube 3

 

 

Fig.4 Test tube 4

 

Test Tube 3:

The third test tube consists of 10ml of the water sample and 0.5 ml of lemon extract. The initial OD was 0.16 which is more than the control tube because of the turbidity of the lemon extract. Most of the cleansing powers of the lemon are present in its pulp and adding it to the water will increase the turbidity. This turbidity is not because of increase in bacterial growth but is because of the reason mentioned before. After 6 hours it was found to be 0.12. Lemon extract’s efficiency is about 25%.

 

Test Tube 4:

Test tube 4 contains 10ml of the water sample and 0.5ml of sandalwood solution. The initial OD was found to be 0.16 which is again more than the control due to the turbidity caused by sandalwood particles. The OD after 6 hours was found to be 0.10. Sandalwood solution’s efficiency is about 37.5%.

 

Test Tube 5:

Test tube 5 contains 10ml of the water sample, 0.5 ml of rose water and 0.5 ml of lemon extract. The initial OD was found to be 0.16. The OD after a time of 6 hors was found to be 0.12. The efficiency of this combination is about 25%

 

 

Fig.5 Test tube 5

 

 

Fig.6 Test tube 6

 

Test Tube 6:

This test tube consists of 10ml of the water sample, 0.5 ml of sandalwood solution and 0.5ml of lemon extract. The initial OD was found to be 0.14 and after 6 hours it changed to 0.11. The efficiency of this combination is about 22%.

 

Test Tube 7:

The seventh tube contains 10ml of the water sample with 0.5ml of rose water and 0.5ml of sandalwood solution. The initial OD was 0.13 and after a time of 6 hours it became 0.08. The efficiency of this combination is about 49.5%.

 

Test Tube 8:

This test tube contains 10ml of the water sample, 0.5 ml of rose water, 0.5ml of sandalwood solution and 0.5ml of lemon extract. The initial OD was 0.15 and the final OD was found to be 0.09. The efficiency of this combination is about 52%.

 

 

Fig.7 Test tube 7

 

 

Fig.8 Test tube 8

 

Efficiency:

The efficiency of each combination shows the ability of each combination to decrease the number of bacteria in the sample.

 

 

Fig.8 Efficiency of the combinations

 

The most efficient is Rose water while the least efficient is lemon extract. When we look at the combination of the extracts and solutions. The most efficient is the combination of all the three i.e. Rose water, lemon extract and sandalwood solution. While the least efficiency is shown by test tube 6 which contains lemon extract and sandalwood solution. The contribution of lemon extract alone is less, but when they are mixed with a compatible solution they contribute a little bit to the cleansing. If we observe properly the samples with rose water show immediate effect on the growth.

 

CONCLUSION:

This work shows that organic extracts and solutions used in the above experiment are potential materials for a fruit wash.

 

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS:

We sincerely like to express our gratitude to Dr G. Viswanathan, founder and hon’ble Chancellor, VIT University, Vellore, for his constant support and encouragement. We want to express special thanks to Dr Sekar Viswanathan, Mr Sankar Viswanathan and Mr G.V. Selvam   for their constant motivation and help.

 

REFERENCES:

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2.     Gurvinder S. Mundi,Richard G. Zytner, Keith Warriner (2017): Fruit and Vegetable wash characterization, Canadian Journal of Civil Engineering, 14(11), 971-983

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4.     Al‐Ghazali, M.R. and Al‐Azawi, S.K. (1990) Listeria monocytogenes contamination of crops grown on soil treated with sewage sludge cake. J Appl Bacteriol 69, 642–647.

5.     Anon (2001a) Analysis and Evaluation of Preventive Control Measures for the Control and Reduction/Elimination of Microbial Hazards on Fresh and Fresh‐Cut Produce, Chapter IV, Outbreaks Associated with Fresh Produce: Incidence, Growth, and Survival of Pathogens in Fresh and Fresh‐Cut Produce. Rockville, MD: US Food and Drug Administration

6.     Anon (1993) United States Environmental Protection Agency Rule 503 in Biosolids Generation, Use, and Disposal in the United States. Washington, DC: US Environmental Protection Agency

7.     Anon (2003) Water for People, Water for Life: Executive Summary. United Nations World Water Development Report 2003. Paris, France: UNESCO Publ.

8.     Arumugaswamy, R.K., Ali, G.R.R. and Hamid, S.N.B.A. (1994) Prevalence of Listeria monocytogenes in foods in Malaysia, Int. Journal Food Microbiol 23, 117–121.

9.     Anon (2007) Consumer Attitudes to Food Standards Report, Wave 7. London, UK: Food Standards Agency.

10.   Avery, L.M., Killham, K. and Jones, D.L. (2005) Survival of E. coli O157: H7 in organic wastes destined for land application. J Appl Microbiol 98, 814–822.

 

 

Accepted on 28.07.2018        © RJPT All right reserved

Research J. Pharm. and Tech 2018; 11(12): 5243-5246.