ANALYSIS OF VEGETABLE AND FRUIT JUICES

By: - Kirthana Shivakumar and Nayantara Varadharajan

Introduction
Human body is like an engine. To keep it going we must provide it with
the right kind of fuel. This is balanced food. A balanced diet is one that
consists of the correct proportions of the five basic ingredients of good
nutrition, i.e. carbohydrates, fats, proteins, mineral salts and vitamins. The
knowledge of various essential constituents of food and the food materials
in which these ingredients are available is a must. Deficiency of any of
these essential ingredients leads to many diseases. For example, calcium
and phosphorus are required for the formation of bones and teeth,
deficiency of these causes the decay of tooth and bones. Deficiency of
iron causes anemia. Lack of iodine causes goitre. So, it is necessary that
the food we eat be selected carefully.
Besides wheat, rice and milk, fruits and vegetables form an important part
of balanced diet. They contain minerals, carbohydrates and vitamins. We
are advised by doctors to include more vegetables and fruits in our diets.
Therefore, study could be undertaken to investigate the constituents of
various fruits and vegetables.

Objective of project
To plan for a balanced diet, knowledge of various ingredients of fruits and
vegetable is necessary. In this project, we aim to have knowledge about
the contents of different fruits.

EXPERIMENT
Aim: -To analyze some fruit and vegetable juices for the contents present
in them.

Requirements: -Test tubes, burner, litmus paper, laboratory reagents, juices

of various fruits and vegetables.

Procedure: -
1. Test of Acidity
Take 5ml each of various fruit and vegetable juices in different test tubes
and dip pH paper in them. If pH is less than 7, the juice is acidic, and if pH
is more than 7, the juice is basic.
2. Test for Starch
Take about 2ml of juice in a test tube and add few drops of iodine
solution. Blue color shows presence of starch.
3. Test for Proteins
i. Ninhydrin Test
To about 2ml of juice in a test tube add 2ml of ninhydrin solution
and heat. Blue color confirms the presence of protein.
OR
ii. Biuret Test
To about 3ml of 5% NaOH solution, add 2 drops of 1% CuSO4 solution so
that permanent blue color is obtained. Add juice to it and shake the
solution. Violet colored precipitate indicates protein in the juice.
4.Test for Carbohydrates
i. Fehling’s Test
 To 2ml of juice add 1ml of Fehling solution A and 1ml of Fehling
solution B and boil. Red ppt. indicates the presence of reducing
sugars like maltose, glucose, fructose and lactose.
OR
ii. Molisch’s Test
To about 2ml of juice in a test tube add 2ml of 1% solution of α-naphthol
in ethanol. To the mixture add conc. H2SO4 from the side of test tube.
Purple colored ring shoes the presence of carbohydrates.
5.Test for fats
To a clean dry test tube containing the fruit/vegetable juice, add ethanol
(in the ratio 2 drops of juice to 5 cm cube of ethanol). Shake thoroughly to
dissolve the fat and then pour the solution into another test tube
containing a little water. A cloudy white emulsion indicates the presence
of fat.