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ABSTRACT:
The oxalate ion and ascorbic acid concentrations of the matured guava fruit at different stages of ripening were determined using reported procedures. The oxalate ion content was found to increase and the ascorbic acid content was found to decrease with the aging of the fruit. From the plot of oxalate ion concentrations and ascorbic acid concentrations against number days, the approximate age of the matured guava bought from market is determined by measuring their oxalate ion t and ascorbic acid contents. The age of the guava obtained by the oxalate and ascorbic acid methods were found to be almost the same making a chance of a linear relationship between the conversion of ascorbic acid to oxalate ion. This linearity is proved by plotting the concentration of ascorbic acid against the concentration of oxalate ion. An approximate study of rate of change of oxalate ion and the ascorbic acid contents were also determined from the standard plots of oxalate ion and ascorbic acid.
KEYWORDS: Guava, Rate, Kinetics, Ascorbic acid, Oxalate ion, Vitamin C.
INTRODUCTION:
Guava (Psidium guajava) is widely present in all most all parts of India. It is rich in ascorbic acid (Vitamin C), Vitamin B and other minerals and is considered as a healthy food. But being an oxalate rich fruit the over intake of it may cause the formation of Kidney stone in people. The potential antioxidant property of Guava is reported by L. Y. Yan et.al.1 and J. Gull et. al2 It is already reported by several studies that the oxalate content in guava increases as it get ripens with a corresponding decrease in the ascorbic acid (Vitamin C) content3,4,5 Various mechanisms are suggested for the increase of oxalate content in Guava.
Some of the various reasons are the chance of the incomplete oxidation of glucose to...