Development of Kothalahimbutu (Salacia reticulata) aqueous extract incorporated drinking yoghurt.

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.