Antioxidant activity of herbal tea prepared from Cosmos caudatus leaves at different maturity stages

Herbal tea is widely consumed around the world because people believed that it contained high amount of antioxidant. However, usage of different maturity of the plants as raw materials could affect the antioxidant capacities in herbal tea. Hence, this paper reports the antioxidant activity of herbal tea prepared from Cosmos caudatus at different maturity namely young, mature and old leaves. The analyses carried out were total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP) and DPPH (2-2-diphenyl- 1-picrylhydrazyl) radical scavenging assays. Based on the results obtained, herbal tea prepared from young leaves had significantly strong (p<0.05) antioxidant activity for all assays tested than herbal tea prepared from mature and old leaves. In fact, TPC and TFC exhibited a strong positively correlation with reducing power but inversely correlated with DPPH scavenging activity indicating that these compounds are major contributors to the antioxidant activity. Thus, this shows that antioxidant activity in C. caudatus leaves reduced with increase maturity and hence it is recommended to use young leaves for herbal tea preparation since it possessed good antioxidant activity which benefits human health

Genotoxicity and cytotoxicity evaluation of sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens) protein hydrolysates

Sea cucumber (Stichopus horrens) protein hydrolysates were known as a potential functional food source with angiotensinconverting enzyme (ACE) inhibitory. The genotoxicity properties of S. horrens protein hydrolysates have been investigated through two different in vitro tests: Ames test and in vitro micronucleus test while the cytotoxicity properties of S. horrens protein hydrolysate were assessed using neutral red test. The study was conducted at a concentration up to 8000 μg/ml, 80 μg/ml and 50 μg/ml for Ames test, in vitro micronucleus test and neutral red test respectively with and without metabolic activation. There were no increments in the number of revertant colonies observed at any concentrations of S. horrens protein hydrolysates with and without metabolic activation in all four strains of Salmonella typhimurium (TA98, TA100, TA1535 and TA1537) compared to the solvent control. In in vitro micronucleus test, S. horrens protein hydrolysate did not induce clastogenicity in V79 cell while in neutral red test, S. horrens protein hydrolysate did not show any cytotoxic effects on NIH/3T3 mouse fibroblast cell. In conclusion, S. horrens protein hydrolysates are safe in terms of genotoxic and cytotoxic hence have the potential to be used in pharmaceutical and food industries as functional ingredient

Reformulation of Le’Natura® Biscuit: Effects on Textural, Sensorial, Nutritional and Glycemic Index Values

Introduction: The purpose of this study was to reformulate Le’Natura® biscuit for textural, sensorial, nutritional and glycemic index properties improvement. The original biscuit had a brittle and coarse texture with a bitter after-taste. It also contained high carbohydrate which made the biscuit unsuitable for diabetic patients and less desirable to the health-conscious consumers. Methods and Results: Several ingredients from the original formulation were either eliminated, reduced or substituted in order to modify the texture and taste, to obtain a low glycemic index (GI) value and to increase acceptability. The ingredients involved in reformulation were wheat flour, milk powder, maltodextrin, atta flour, green bean flour, polydextrose, palm oil, and leavening agents. The final reformulated biscuit showed improvements in thickness, spread ratio, fracturability and firmness properties. The improved biscuit also scored higher acceptability for appearance, texture, sweetness, after-taste and overall acceptability attributes. The in vivo GI measured indicates that the improved biscuit was in the low GI range of 44.7±4.7 compared to the original biscuit (63.5±7.7, moderate GI). The nutrients composition of total energy, fat, protein, dietary fiber, iron, and calcium content were increased while total carbohydrate and sodium levels were decreased. Conclusions: With the improvements, Le’Natura® biscuit is expected to capture the functional food market segment more competitively. Keywords: functional food; biscuit; glycemic index; high fibe

Influence of thermal processing on chemical composition and antinutritional factors of durian (Durio zibethinus) SEED / Marina Zulkifli … [et al.]

The effects of some heat treatments on the chemical composition of durian (Durio zibethinus) seeds were determined. Heat treatments applied were boiling, microwave cooking and autoclaving. The raw D.zibethinus seeds contained the highest chemical composition in terms of protein, fat, total ash, minerals, and crude fibre content. Nevertheless, boiling, microwave cooking and autoclaving processes caused significant (p < 0.05) decreases in crude protein, crude fat, total ash, mineral compositions, and crude fibre content of D.zibethinus seeds. However, all heat treatments employed significantly (p < 0.05) increased the moisture content and total carbohydrate content of D.zibethinus seeds. Heat treatments brought a total removal of ferum of treated D.zibethinus seeds. Raw and treated D.zibethinus seeds were evaluated for their antinutritional components including phytates, oxalates, saponins and tannins. Based on the results, raw D.zibethinus seeds showed the highest amount of phytates (864.94±12.24 mg/100g), oxalates (217.98±5.00 mg/100g), saponins (161.63±2.48 mg/100g) and tannins (564.44±7.18 mg/100g) while the least amount of antinutritional components were recorded in boiled D.zibethinus seeds with 181.32±4.46 mg/100g (79.04% reduction), 105.55±13.07 mg/100g (51.58% reduction), 60.22±1.27 mg/100g (62.74% reduction) and 232.19±4.92 mg/100g (58.79% reduction) for each phytates, oxalates, saponins and tannins respectively. All treatments conducted on D.zibethinus seeds caused significantly (p < 0.05) decreases in the level of all antinutritional factors studied as compared to the raw seeds. Boiling caused the highest reduction in the level of antinutritional factors in D.zibethinus seeds followed by autoclaving and microwave cooking

Antioxidant and mutagenic activity of herbal tea prepared from Cosmos caudatus leaves at different maturity stages

Different maturity stages of Cosmos caudatus leaves have been used to prepare herbal tea were investigated for their effect on antioxidant activity and mutagenic activity. The analyses carried out were total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), ferric reducing antioxidant power (FRAP), 2-2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical scavenging, β-carotene bleaching assay, oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) and Ames Salmonella mutagenicity. The results demonstrated that, C. caudatus herbal tea prepared from young leaves showed significantly highest antioxidant activity for all assays tested, followed by mixed leaves, mature leaves, old leaves and the lowest was in C. caudatus herbal tea from a commercial brand. Pearson’s correlation coefficient also demonstrated that TPC and TFC displayed a strong correlation with all antioxidant activity assays, showing that these compounds were the major contributors to the antioxidant activity in C. caudatus herbal tea. However, all studied C. caudatus herbal tea showed no mutagenic effects against Salmonella typhimurium tester strain TA98 and TA100 with and without S9 metabolic activation. Hence, it can be concluded that, different maturity stages could affect the antioxidant activity in C. caudatus herbal tea as it reduced the antioxidant activity as maturity increased, but did not give any effect on the mutagenic activity

Physicochemical properties, sensory evaluation and storage stability of vitamin E fortified pink guava juice / Aishah Bujang … [et al.]

Pink guavas (Psidium guajava L.) are tropical, climateric fruits that are commonly grown in Malaysia for juice and puree production. These fruit are highly aromatic and rich in potassium, vitamin A and C. It is well known that guava fruit contains significantly more vitamin C than most citruses. Vitamin C is a powerful antioxidant and anti-inflammatory agent. Pink guavas also have a high level of lycopene, a carotenoid which is considered good for fighting free radicals. Currently, Sime Darby Golden Hope Foods and Beverages company is the single largest pink guava plantation in the world with over 500 hectares of the fruit grown in Sitiawan, Perak. It is the only pink guava plantation in Malaysia and the largest integrated facility in Asia. The fruit are hand-picked and processed into puree and hygienically packed into aseptic bags and sealed in steel drums for overseas export market or process into ready-to-drink juice in tetrapak packaging for local market. Normally, fruit juices are cloudy in appearance, have a lot of colloidal suspensions that are either preferred by some consumers or considered as unattractive to the others. The juice cloudiness is contributed by the presence of different components (cell wall fragments, cellular organelles, oil droplets, hesperidin crystals, pectin etc.) together with polydisperse distribution of particles sizes (Sentandrau et al., 2011). The colloidal particles in the juices also carry flavour substances and natural antioxidants such as carotenoids, lycopene etc. Sedimentation of juice due to the presence of pulp particles caused the separation problem in most fruit juices. Addition of stabilising agent and homogenisation process are conducted to reduce the particle size of the sediments hence preventing separation from occurring. The choice of stabilisers used is also important depending on the properties of the juices. Starch, pectin, arabic gum, carrageenan gum, guar gum and xanthan gum are commonly used as stabilising agents in beverages. Homogenisation technique using ultrasonic vibrations and high-pressure homogenisers are nowadays used to disintegrate large fat globules into a more stable, small and uniform fat globules size. Sonication process is more preferred in food industries because of reduced processing time, higher throughput and lower energy consumption (Cheng et al., 2007)

Acute and oral subacute toxicity study of ethanolic extract of Cosmos caudatus leaf in Sprague Dawley rats

Cosmos caudatus, commonly known as ‘Ulam Raja’ by the locals, belongs to the botanical family Asteraceae. The plant is traditionally used in Malaysia for many beneficial claims such as for reducing body heat, as an anti-aging agent, improving blood circulation, promoting fresh breath, strengthening bone marrow and treating infections associated with pathogenic microorganisms. This study investigated the acute and subacute toxicity effects of C. caudatus, as per OECD Guidelines 423 for acute and 407 for subacute protocols. Haematological assessments as well as the body and organs weights of the rats were measured. For acute toxicity study, no evidence of toxicity attributable to the treatment was observed on behavioural pattern, haematological evaluation and organ weight in both treated and control groups. A significant weight gained (p<0.05) in rats that received 5000 mg/kg extract was observed, however, gross examination of internal organs revealed no detectable inflammation. For subacute toxicity study, there was a significant increased (p<0.05) in water intake (ml/day) in 250 and 500 mg/kg treated groups as compared with control while food intake and weight gain are comparable in all groups. A significant decreased (p<0.05) of lung and liver weights was observed in all treated groups while kidney weight of rats treated with 500 mg/kg of extract decreased significantly as compared with control. Haematological evaluation showed no significant difference except for packed cell volume (PCV) that decreased significantly (p<0.05) among the treated groups. In addition, red blood cells (RBC) of both groups of rats that received 250 and 500 mg/kg decreased significantly (p<0.05) as compared to the control group. Meanwhile, white blood cells (WBC) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) were significantly different (p<0.05) among those rats that received 125 and 500 mg/kg extracts, respectively, as compared with control. The finding therefore revealed that different concentrations of the extract had induced different toxicity effects among the rats especially on subacute toxicity study. It is recommended that a comprehensive study to be conducted to ascertain the toxicity effects of C. caudatus on other biological parameters

Bioactive Phenolic Acid Contents Of Nanoparticle Z. Officinale Rhizome Via High-Performance Liquid Chromatography – Solid Phase Extraction (HPLC-SPE) Methods

Nanotechnology is a prominent science knowledge applied in miscellaneous disciplines. The effect of nanotechnology on the phenolic profile of herbs is lacking in the literature, thus this study was conducted to assess the effect of nanotechnology onbioactive polyphenolic compounds of z. officinale (ginger) rhizome. The effect of the nanotechnology process on the content ofbioactive polyphenolic compounds in the nanoparticle ginger was compared to the conventional prepared namely coarse and fineparticle ginger. The phenolic acids of ginger rhizome powder (of 6 - gingerol, 8 - gingerol, 10 - gingerol, 6 - shogaol, gallic acid,chlorogenic acid, ascorbic acid, vanillic acid, ferulic acid, and p-coumaric) were identified using HPLC-SPE method. Nanotechnology process found to increase 88.03% of 6 - gingerol, 0.23% in 8 - gingerol and 100% in 10 - gingerol as shown inthe nanoparticle ginger rhizome but 74%, 34.13% and almost 100% decreased in the gallic acid, chlorogenic acid and pcoumaric acid respectively as compared to the conventional prepared ginger powder. Hence it can be suggested that nanotechnology significantly affects the constituents of the phenolic acid of herbs which may be beneficial for the food and pharmaceutical industr

Phytochemical constituents and in vitro bioactivity of ethanolic aromatic herb extracts

Phytochemical compounds, antioxidant and antibacterial activities of selected ethanolic aromatic Malaysian herbal extracts namely Persicaria hydropiper, Citrus hystrix, Murraya koenigii, Etlingera elatior, Cymbopogon citratus and Kaempferia galanga were screened and determined. Antioxidant activities were analysed using Ferric Reducing Antioxidant Power (FRAP), β-carotene bleaching and Oxygen Radical Absorbance Capacity (ORAC) assays. Disc diffusion assay was used to determine antibacterial activity against six bacteria strains. Alkaloids, flavonoids, saponins, tannins, terpenoids and steroids were detected in the herb extracts. P. hydropiper extract had the highest antioxidant activities in FRAP and ORAC assays in which 1676.67 mM TE/g EW and 11.20 mmol TE/g EW were obtained, respectively. However, M. koenigii extract showed 61.8% inhibition in β-carotene bleaching assay among samples but lower than BHA/BHT standard. M. koenigii extract showed the most effective antibacterial activity against three Gram-positive bacteria. Aromatic Malaysian herbs such as P. hydropiper and M. koenigii were found to exhibit high antioxidant and antibacterial activities

Acute oral toxicity effects of Momordica charantia in sprague dawley rats

Momordica charantia is commonly known as bitter gourd, balsam pear or karela is a multi-purpose herb. It is cultivated from different parts of the world and is usually used in traditional medicine. This study was conducted to investigate the acute oral toxicity effects of Momordica charantia in Sprague Dawley rats based on OECD Guidelines 423. The extract was administered orally at two different doses of 300 mg/kg and 2000 mg/kg of body weight. The toxicity signs were recorded within the first 24 hours after forced feeding. Both of the treated groups showed dizziness and depression during the first 30 minutes. However, no significant difference of feeding patterns which included water, food intake and body weight gain were observed. Haematological evaluations did not show significant differences in white blood cells count (WBC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin concentration (MCHC) levels. However, red blood cells count (RBC) and packed cell volume (PCV) percentage was significantly lower in rats that received 2000 mg/kg than those of the other two groups. Meanwhile, haemoglobin (Hb) count and the relative liver weight of rats received 2000 mg/kg body weight of extract decreased significantly (p<0.05) as compared with the control group. Thus, this study is expected to be beneficial for clinical and traditional applications for safe consumption and to utilize Momordica charantia as a remedy at a recommended dosage