RESUMEN
Jamun (Syzygium cumini L.) fruit is an underutilized source of bioactive phytochemicals. Therefore, preserving this fruit in various forms over the year is necessary. Spray drying can effectively preserve jamun juice; but the stickiness issue of fruit juice powder mainly arises during the drying, which may be overcome by using different carriers. Consequently, this experiment aimed to ascertain the effect of different carrier types (maltodextrin, gum arabic, whey protein concentrate, waxy starch, and maltodextrin: gum arabic) on the physical, flow, reconstitution, functional, and color stability of spray-dried jamun juice powder. The physical parameters of the produced powder such as moisture content, bulk, and tapped density were in the range of 2.57%-4.95% (w.b.), 0.29-0.50 and 0.45-0.63 g/mL, respectively. The powder yield ranged between 55.25% and 75.9%. The flow characteristics, Carr's index and Hausner ratio, were in the range of 20.89-35.90 and 1.26-1.56, respectively. Reconstitution attributes viz., wettability, solubility, hygroscopicity, and dispersibility were in the range of 90.3-199.7 s, 55.28%-95%, 15.23-25.86 g/100 g, and 70.97%-95.79%, respectively. The functional attributes include total anthocyanin, total phenol content, and encapsulation efficiency, were in the range of 75.13-110.01 mg/100 g, 129.48-215.02 g GAE/100 g, and 40.49%-74.07%, respectively. The L*, a*, and b* values ranged from 41.82 to 70.86, 14.33 to 23.04, -8.12 to -0.60, respectively. A combination of maltodextrin and gum arabic was found effective in producing jamun juice powder with appropriate physical, flow, functional, and color attributes.