Exploration of the Potential of Local Plants of Melastoma malabatchricum Fruit for Food Fortification

Abstract

Endurance can be increased by maintaining nutritional intake, one of which is by con-suming local plants such as Melastoma malabatchricum Fruit. This study aims to ex-plore the nutritional content of M. malabatchricum fresh fruit, flour and processed products from flour. This research was conducted at the Baristand Laboratory of the Banjar Baru Industrial Center, South Kalimantan. The results showed that flour and processed products from M. malabatchricum flour had higher nutritional content of cal, ca and Fe than fresh M. malabatchricum fruit. Fruit flour calorie (cal) content of 176.69 Cal/100g and fresh fruit calorie (cal) content of 79.65 Cal/100 g. Fruit flour calcium (ca) content of 7317.439 mg/Kg and fresh fruit calcium (ca) content of 3017.018 mg/Kg. Fruit flour iron (Fe) content of 26.74 mg/Kg and fresh fruit iron (Fe) content of 5.301 mg/Kg. These results indicate that M. malabatchricum has the potential to be developed as an ingredient for food fortification.