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The demand for functional foods has been increasing tremendously throughout the globe and keeping in view the health beneficial properties of apricot fruit. The purpose of this study is to develop wheat flour based cookies enriched with apricot pulp powder in order to improve nutraceutical properties of cookies and dilution of gluten at the same time.

Cookies were prepared from wheat flour blended with apricot pulp powder at 0, 10, 15, 20 and 25% level and evaluated for proximate, functional, rheological, nutraceutical and sensory properties.

Fibre content of apricot powder-incorporated cookies (3.23%) was significantly (p < 0.05) higher at 25% level than control (1.64%). The water absorption and oil absorption capacities decreased significantly (p < 0.05) upon increasing level of apricot pulp powder. The ß-carotene content, antioxidant activity and total phenolic content increased significantly (p < 0.05) upon incorporation of apricot pulp powder. The thickness of cookies increased, however, diameter and spread ratio decreased with increase in the levels of apricot pulp powder. Lightness (L*) value decreased, while redness (a*) and yellowness (b*) increased when incorporated with apricot pulp powder. Cookies having 25% apricot pulp powder showed maximum hardness and overall acceptability.

To the best of our knowledge, the scientific literature on incorporation of apricot pulp powder in bakery products is scanty. As such the present research has a tremendous scope for the food industries to produce functional bakery products with antioxidant properties and diluted the gluten content at the same time.

The study was aimed to explore the potential impact of microwave heating (450 W for 2, 4, 6 and 8 min) on antioxidant activity, anti-nutritional factors, volatile and phenolic compounds of the plum kernels.

Plum kernels are rich in proteins, lipids and bioactive compounds that are mostly underused and undervalued.

The results showed that microwave heating at 450 W for 6 min significantly (p < 0.05) increased the antioxidant activity, total phenolic and flavonoid content, while the longer treatment time (450 W for 8 min) adversely affected the phenolic compounds. Most importantly, the anti-nutritional factors like amygdalin, hydrocyanic acid, phytic acid and tannin content were reduced up to 87.1, 84.7, 20.9 and 46.2%, respectively at 450 W for 6 min treatment conditions, which was confirmed from the larger shifts observed in FT-IR spectra near 1,157 cm⁻¹. Microwave heating at 450 W for 6 min also proved beneficial in improving the bioavailability of volatile and phenolic compounds including chlorogenic acid, gallic acid, syringic acid, (+)-catechin, caffeic acid, ß-carotene, trans-ferulic acid, rutin trihydrate, 3,4-dihydroxybenzoic acid, tannic acid and quercetin by liberating them from the plant matrix.

The results thus indicate that controlled microwave heating could be an effective approach for the reduction of anti-nutritional factors besides leading to an overall improvement in antioxidant potential and volatile and phenolic compounds. This novel technological approach can proliferate the use of plum kernels in different diversified food formulations.