Storage Stability of Bioactive Compounds in Processed Mulberry Products from Two Species

This study was conducted to investigate the sensory characteristics, bioactive compounds and free radical scavenging activity of value added products namely crush, syrup and leather prepared from two mulberry species and the changes were determined over a period of 8 months of storage. Among the processed products, leather from black mulberry whereas crush and syrup from red mulberry showed the highest overall acceptability based on the sensory scores. Leather from black mulberry had 65–67% higher total phenolics, 18–33% higher flavonoids than crush and syrup whereas crush from black mulberry had 25–31% higher anthocyanins than syrup and leather. Ascorbic acid content was higher in crush prepared from black mulberry than red mulberry. The study revealed that leather retained 19–23% more antioxidant activity than syrup and crush. The results suggest that processing mulberry into products enhances their utilization and offer a potential health promoting alternative that can be stored upto four months without substantial quality loss.