Abstract:
Salacia reticulata is a popular medicinal plant in Sri Lanka due to its beneficial therapeutic values.
Herbal preparations of Salacia reticulata have been used for traditional treatment of numerous
diseases for many years without adverse effects. As the diet plays a major role in health, foods
which can provide a good state of health and to prevent the diseases have gained consumers’
attention. Therefore, value added foods are developed all over the world using various
ingredients. Hence the current study was undertaken to develop a value-added drinking yoghurt
by incorporating aqueous extract of Salacia reticulata stem. This study was carried out using three
(3) variables at two (2) levels with a view to identify the best formulation for the product
according to factorial design. The sensory data was analyzed at α= 0.05 level of significance by
using IBM SPSS statistical software package. The sensorially best drinking yoghurt with the
highest consumer acceptance was selected according to the sensory attributes followed by a
three-step sensory evaluation. According to the Fried-man test results for third sensory
evaluation, the sample which having 5% of extract, extract adding time (during inoculating time)
and inoculating amount (3%) was selected as the sensorially best sample. The obtained mean
rank values of the best sample for appearance, odor, taste, mouth feel, and overall acceptability
were 4.03, 4.67, 4.47, 3.87 and 4.40, respectively. According to the Wilcoxon signed rank test
results for the sensory evaluation between control drinking yoghurt sample and sensorially best
drinking yoghurt sample, no significant difference was observed for sensory attributes as all the
p- values were > 0.05. The p-values obtained for the paired samples for appearance, odor, taste,
mouth feel, and overall acceptability were 0.489, 0.110, 0.763, 0.309 and 1.00 respectively. Salacia
reticulata extract incorporated drinking yoghurt can be developed as a functional food due to the
therapeutic potential of Salacia reticulata aqueous extract.
