Quality Attributes of Different Purple Sweet Potato Variety and Sensory Evaluation of Purple Sweet Potato Straight Drink

Abstract

Sweet potato (Ipomoea batatas L.) is an extremely important crop in many parts of the world, being cultivated in more than 100 countries. In Malaysia, sweet potato is the second crop after cassava (Manihot esculenta crantz). In this study, the effect of several Malaysian purple sweet potato varieties (K2, K5 and K6) on physical and chemical characteristics and sensory evaluation of purple sweet potato straight drink were evaluated. These samples were evaluated in the form of fresh flesh and puree before being processed into straight drink. The total anthocyanin content (TAC) of the purees ranging from 25.71 to 426.67 mg/L. TAC difference between varieties was statistically significant (p > 0.05). All varieties contain high minerals in the range of 70.1--92.0 mg/100 g for phosphorus, 45.3--69.1 mg/100 g for calcium, 435--518 mg/100 g for potassium, 28.9--34.7 mg/100 g for magnesium and 5.4--13.1 mg/100 g for sodium. Vitamin C was 11.7--29.9 mg/100 g and vitamin E was 11.2--3.8 mg/100 g. For sensory evaluation, there were no significant differences (p > 0.05) in terms of aroma and sweetness of sweet potato straight drink with different percentage of K2 puree (T1, T2, T3). Thus, K2 was found suitable for various processing, which contains high total anthocyanin content and could be a high-phytonutrient source in human nutrition.