Promoting the Nutrition and Sensory Properties of Herbal Candy Using Psydrax Umbellata Leaf Extract
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Abstract
Introduction: The current trend in the field of food product development being focuses on innovative functional foods, value-added with natural ingredients, which offers health benefits and nutrition. Many investigations have been proven that sugar confections like candies are considered low in nutrients. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate plant-based extracts to add to confections in a way that maintains their consumer acceptance while evaluating their nutritional and other attributes.
Objectives: In order to explore the effect of P. umbellata leaf extract on nutritional and sensory qualities. we focused on extraction and evaluation of the two herbal candy formulations from Psydrax umbellata.
Methods: The P. umbellata leaf extract was incorporated into two herbal candy formulations to assess its impact on nutritional and sensory properties. Formulation 1 served as the control, containing only natural ingredients, while Formulation 2 included 5 g of the plant extract. Sensory and physical evaluations were performed, alongside analysis of nutritional factors such as total minerals, vitamin C, crude fiber, flavonoids, phenolic content, and antioxidant activity via DPPH assay.
Results: Remarkably, P. umbellata improved several nutritional factors and sensory properties, including total mineral content, vitamin C and crude fiber. Higher levels of Flavonoid (111.74 ± 6.43 mg/g RE) and total phenolic content (84.09 ± 1.5 mg/g GAE) indicated better antioxidant potential in formulation 2. The results of the DPPH assay revelled that Formulation 2 had more free radical scavenging ability than Formulation 1.
Conclusions: The results shown that the P. umbellata is a useful ingredient in herbal candies because it could enhance the nutritional and antioxidant properties without changing any of the sensory attributes.