Sharpened knives

Pomegranate juice (PJ) was extracted in triplicates from 10 fruit per treatment (10 fruit = 1 replicate) by carefully cutting each fruit at the equatorial zone with sharpened knives (Sigma-Aldrich, Johannesburg, South Africa) and manually separating arils. A blender (Mellerware, South Africa) was used to extract pomegranate juice (PJ) from arils (without crushing the kernels). In triplicates, titratable acidity (TA) was evaluated by diluting PJ (2 mL) with milli-Q water (70 mL) and titrated with 0.1 N NaOH to an endpoint of pH = 8.2 using a Metrohm 862 compact auto titrosampler (Herisau, Switzerland) [64 (link)]. The results were expressed as percentage citric acid equivalents (% CAE). Total soluble solids (TSS) were determined using a digital refractometer (Atago, Tokyo, Japan), and the results were expressed as degree Brix (°Brix). The TSS/TA ratio and BrimA index were calculated to understand further the relationship between TSS and TA. BrimA index was calculated using TSS − k × TA, where k is the tongue’s sensitivity index assigned a value of 2 to avoid negative BrimA index [68 (link),70 (link)].