Background and objectives: Fortified foods provide not only nutritional requirements, but also have positive effects on host. Puffy snack consists of whole grain bulgur and flour puffed by using extruder. Pumpkin is a good source of carotene, water-soluble vitamins and amino acids. Pumpkin can be processed into flour which has a longer shelf life. Because of its highlydesirable flavour, sweetness and deep yellow orange – red color pumpkin flour has gained much attention. Materials and methods: For the production of pumpkin powder, after the skin and seeds was removed, the edible part was cut into pieces of 5 mm and dried in the dryer with hot air (65° C) at 1 m/s flow rate for 8 hours to a moisture content of 10%. In this study, the effect of replacing corn flour with pumpkin powder (at four levels of 0, 10, 15 and 20%) on physicochemical and sensory properties of snack was evaluated. The mean values were compared with Duncan test at 95%. The physicochemical properties of puffy snack evaluated were moisture content, total polyphenolic compounds, fiber, β-carotene, density and texture. Results: In terms of crispiness, there was no significant difference between prepared snacks (P>0. 05), but moisture contents were found to be significantly different in the range of 2. 58 – 5. 11 % in different samples. The highest amount of β-carotene (0. 45 mg/100 gr) was observed in the puffy snacks containing 20% pumpkin powder and the lowest amount was found in control (0. 09 mg/100 gr). Increasing the pumpkin resulted in significant increase in total phenols (in the range of 433-2203 mg/L). The higher levels of substitution led to manufacture products with the higher expansion rate than the control sample. The highest rate of expansion rate was for puffy snacks with 20% pumpkin powder which was significantly different with other treatments (P<0. 05). The results of sensory evaluation showed that the puffy snack containing 20% pumpkin powder had the highest score for color, texture, flavor and total acceptance. Conclusion: Significant differences were found for the amounts of fiber and β-carotene, expansion rate, density and texture when the new produced samples were compared to the control (P<0. 05). According to the physicochemical and sensory results, the puffy snack containing 20% pumpkin powder can be introduced as the best formulation.

Background and Objectives: Today, production and supply of functional drinks is faced with ongoing growth. Among the drinks, orange juice due to its nutritional and organoleptic characteristics and reasonable price is welcomed and more popular. The goal of this study is to investigate orange juice properties containing pumpkin powder.Materials and Methods: In this study, pumpkin powder in four levels of 0, 5, 10 and 15 percent is added in the formulation of orange juice. Sample characteristics includeacidity, viscosity, density, b-carotene, ash, color and sensory properties which were evaluated.Results: Results showed that addition of pumpkin powder to orange juice increases its value to 15%, increased the viscosity, density, b-carotene, and ash of orange juice and reduce the amount of acidity. Addition of pumpkin powder to orange juice because of the large amount of pectin, increased the viscosity of orange juice from 45cp in control sample to 42000 cp in the sample containing 15 % pumpkin powder. Minimum and maximum amount of b-carotene was in the control sample (0.465 mg/g) and samples containing 15% pumpkin powder (1.312 mg/g), respectively. Addition of pumpkin due to the high content of b-carotene increased the yellowish and redness parameter of orange juice.Conclusion: Based on the sensory evaluation results, orange juice with 5% pumpkin powder had highest rating in terms of color, odor, flavor, texture and overall acceptability.

Yogurt is popular because of its high levels of calcium, vitamins, minerals and low levels of fat, as well as its health-promoting effects and inhibiting harmful bacteria and helping to prolong life. Pumpkin is a good source of β-carotene, water-soluble vitamins and amino acids. In this study, syneresis, pH, acidity and rheological properties of yogurt (1. 5% fat) containing 0, 2. 5, 5 and 7. 5% pumpkin powder were investigated. The results showed that the highest amount of acidity (74° Dornic) was related to the control sample. The results showed that by adding 2. 5% pumpkin powder to the control sample, the strength of the formed gel decreased and with increasing concentration up to 7. 5%, this property was increased. In the study of the viscoelastic behavior of the samples, it was found that by adding a concentration of 2. 5% powder to the control sample, the ratio of viscous to elastic component increases, but with further increase in concentration, this ratio remains almost the same and therefore the viscoelastic behavior remains balanced. The values of loss tangent in the viscoelastic region for the control sample, 2. 5%, 5% and 7. 5%, were 0. 173, 0. 308, 0. 317 and 0. 319, respectively. Therefore, with greater structural cohesion, the consumer feels the same flexibility of the gel regardless of the gel concentration. Also, in all samples, in the whole frequency range, the elastic behavior prevailed over the viscous behavior, which increased by adding 2. 5% powder to the control sample, the type of gel structure (b) increased, and the strength of the structure (a) decreased. This means that the yogurt gel becomes weaker and with increasing concentration of the powder, b decreases and a increases; Therefore, the strength of our structure increases.

Background and Objectives: Breakfast cereals substantially contribute to daily energy and nutrient intakes among children. Also consumer interest in naturally colored foods such as breakfast cereals is growing. The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of pumpkin powder in breakfast cereal production and to determine the physicochemical and sensory properties of the product.Materials & Methods: In this study, the Effects of corn flour replacement with pumpkin powder at six levels of 0, 5, 10, 15, 20 and 25 percent were investigated on the sensory properties and physicochemical properties of breakfast cereals. The characteristics of prepared product including fat, fiber, moisture, protein, ash, b-carotene, polyphenols and color were evaluated.Results: The results of this study showed that adding pumpkin powder did not have a significant effect on fat and protein content (P>0.05). The results of tests for moisture, ash, polyphenols, b-carotene and color showed significant differences (P>0.05) compared to the control sample. With increasing substitution of pumpkin powder, fiber and b-carotene content of breakfast cereals significantly increased. Results of image processing showed that by adding pumpkin powder, the color of samples were redder and more yellow. According to the results of sensory evaluation, the breakfast cereals containing 15 percent pumpkin powder was identified as a good sample.Conclusion: According to the physicochemical and sensory test results, samples containing 15% of pumpkin powder was the best treatment.

Pumpkin is important cucurbit with very high nutritional value. In this study, the effect of osmosis - microwave combination drying of pumpkin slices with a thickness of 5 and 7 mm, sucrose osmotic solution concentrations of 45, 55 and 65% and at times of 15, 30, 45, 60, 90, 120, 150 and 180 min and power of 100, 300 and 500 watts were used as complementary drying. Physical parameters such as texture, shrinkage, color and chemical parameters such as protein, ash, moisture, β-carotene, fat, iron, calcium, sodium, potassium, phosphorus, fiber and vitamin A were studied. Osmotic treatments have reduced the resistance and firmness. The lowest amount of shrinkage was related to dried pumpkin at 100 watt power (71.09%) and significantly difference was observed between samples. The amount of β-carotene for pumpkin with thickness of 0.5 and 0.7 cm dried at a concentration of 55% was between 2.6-3.5%. According to the statistical results there was no significant difference of fiber in the dried samples at power of 100 and 300 watts, but dried samples with the power of 500 watts were significantly different. Amount of pumpkin sodium with thickness of 0.5 and 0.7 cm dried at the 100 watt in microwave oven was between 0.01-0.02%. Calcium content of pumpkin with 0.5 cm thick dried under the powers of 100, 300 and 500 watts were between 1.05-1.08%. The dried pumpkin slices with microwave with 100 watt power had lower darkness related to 300 and 500 watt. A total time of 150 minutes for the osmosis process and power of 500 w was selected for the microwave dryer.

The objective of this study was to investigate the effect of replacing of rice flour with different ratios (0, 10, 20, and 20% w/w) of pumpkin powder on the rheology of batter and textural characteristics of gluten free rice cake. A factorial experiment with a completely randomized design with three replications was used for data analysis. The use of pumpkin powder in rice cake formulations significantly improved rheology of batter and textural characteristics of the samples (p< 0.05). By increasing the replacement level of rice flour with pumpkin powder to 30%, viscosity (from 682.66 to 3518.44 cp), hardness (from 21.11 to 53.97 g), cohesiveness (from 0.83 to 0.94), and springiness (from 9.74 to 13.49 mm) of batter cake improved significantly, but the adhesiveness (3.15 mJ) of batter increased compared to control (1.08 mJ) (p <0.05). However, the incorporation of pumpkin powder in the sample formulations up to 30%, increased the hardness (from 456.17 to 800.11 g), cohesiveness (from 0.56 to 0.67), springiness (from 8.68 to 11.43 mm), and chewiness (from 2231 to 6148 g) of the final cakes. Addition of pumpkin powder (up to 30%) in gluten free rice cake formulation caused the significant increasing of the total color differences (ΔE), browning index, and saturation index (chroma) in the cakes compared to control and moreover, increased the hue angle to 90owhich indicated an increase in the yellowness of the samples containing higher the replacement level of rice flour with pumpkin powder.

Carotenoids are a great category of natural pigments that have some features as antioxidant activity, provitamin and healthy properties. In most food wastes in industry, there are several components by antimicrobial, antioxidant and nutritional properties. Pumpkin peel as a waste of the foodstuff contains carotenoids specially Lutein, which has beneficial supplement in human health. The aim of this study was the extraction of carotenoids by ethanol, methanol and ethyl acetate as solvent in 25 and 40oC. For investigation of extracts antioxidant power, the FRAP and DPPH tests were examined. Since the retention time of pure Lutein obtained at 2.243 min in HPLC, carotenoids extract prepared by methanol at 40 oC had the highest Lutein content. The area under the peak of lutein in mentioned extract was approximately 9561. Evolution by UV-VIS method showed methanol extract at 40 oC was the best sample as lutein content, too. According to FRAP and DPPH test, methanol extract had the highest antioxidant power by 1.044 Fe (II) / lit and 1973 (EC50), respectively.