Aronia dietary drinks fortified with selected herbal extracts preserved by thermal pasteurization and high pressure carbon dioxide
Introduction
Aronia, also called black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa, Michx.) is one of the most potent bio-active fruits because of its high content of polyphenols. They include procyaninidins, anthocyanins and flavonols. The health benefits of the consumption of aronia are associated with their exceptionally high antioxidant capacity. Among the multiple preventive and therapeutic actions of aronia one should mention the inhibition of cancer cell proliferation, antimutagenic, hepaprotective, cardioprotective, and antidiabetic effects (Kulling and Rawel, 2008, Slimestad et al., 2005). Therefore aronia products, currently mainly different kinds of beverages, are becoming increasingly popular all over the world.
Apart from fruits and vegetables the well-known and acknowledged source of valuable bioactive compounds are herbs. They are consumed as infusions or extracts, but are used also for the fortification of other foods, i.e. fruit drinks, enhancing and complementing the positive impact of fruits on the human body (Carlsen et al., 2010, Owczarek et al., 2004).
Cistus (Cistus incanus) has been used in Mediterranean folk medicine in the treatment of the inflammation of the gastrointestinal and urinary tract, liver diseases and infections. C. incanus extract has been shown to have antiviral properties against the infection of the upper respiratory tract (Kalus, Grigorow, Kadecki, Jansen, Kiesewetter, & Radtke, 2009). These medicinal properties are ascribed to the high content of polyphenols, among which flavonoids are the main group (Barrajón-Catalán et al., 2011).
Tea (Camelia sinensis) can decrease the risk of cardiovascular diseases (Hartley et al., 2013) and lower the incidence of some types of cancer (Lambert, 2013), improve digestion and stimulate the immune system. Tea polyphenols have preventive activity against a number of chronic diseases, including diabetes (Nagao et al., 2009). Green tea extract is a rich source of polyphenolic antioxidants and can be used as a natural preservative of fruit beverages, as well as an additional source of the health-promoting compounds.
Extracts of nettle (Urtica dioica) leaves are widely used in traditional medicine for the treatment of a variety of ailments, e.g. liver, urinary and kidney problems (Guarrera and Savo, 2013, Jakubczyk et al., 2015). It has also anti-inflammatory properties (Namazi, Esfanjani, Heshmati, & Bahrami, 2011). Vitamin C and phenolic compounds are among the most important constituents of nettle extracts (Farag, Weigend, Luebert, Brokamp, & Wessjohann, 2013).
The growing awareness of the negative health implication of an excessive sugar intake in the diet has resulted in the demand for low-sweetened foods. Currently the only commercially available non-caloric natural sugar replacers are steviol glycosides (Lemus-Mondaca, Vega-Gálvez, Zura-Bravo, & Ah-Hen, 2012). They are authorized in the EU as a sweetener for i.e. low-energy beverages at the maximum dose of 200 mg/L (EU Regulation No 1131, 2011) and are commonly used in several diet drinks.
When designing health-promoting fruit-based products the important factor which should be taken into consideration is preventing the degradation of the labile compounds such as vitamins and polyphenols. Therefore non-thermal alternatives to the traditional pasteurization process are being sought. One such promising preserving technique can be the usage of high pressure carbon dioxide (HPCD). HPCD can inactivate microorganisms by lowering the pH of cells, inducing the precipitation of carbonate calcium and magnesium, disrupting cells, modifying the cell membrane and extracting cellular components (Liu, Hu, Zhao, & Song, 2012). Several studies confirmed the efficiency of HPCD treatment in obtaining high quality fruit juices (Chen et al., 2010, Fabroni et al., 2010, Gui et al., 2007, Marszałek et al., 2015a, Marszałek et al., 2015b).
The aim of this study was to design the innovative dietary aronia-herbal drinks of high antioxidant capacity and to test the possibility of retaining their unique pro-healthy compounds by using the high pressure carbon dioxide preservation technique. The antioxidant capacity of these formulations was also studied, as it is regarded as one of the aspects of biological, especially anti-inflammatory, activity.
Section snippets
Preparation of drinks
Drinks contained 80% of aronia cloudy juice, were prepared by the Polish producer (Premium Rosa Sp. z o.o.). The fresh aronia fruits were washed, mashed up in a mill (Rietz, San Francisco, USA) and treated with commercial pectinolytic enzymes (0.03%, DMS, France) at 50 °C for 1 h. The resultant pulp was pressed on a belt press (Flottweg, Vilsbiburg, Germany).
Cloudy juice was supplemented with the extracts of cistus (Cistus incanus, 1000 mg/L), green tea (Camellia sinensis, 1000 mg/L) and nettle
Results and discussion
Aronia-herbal drinks were prepared in two versions: traditional, sweetened with sugar in the amount of 3.5% and dietary, in which all added sugar has been replaced with non-caloric steviol glycosides preparation (Table 1). The pH of drinks was 3.5. The energy value of the diet version was a minimum of 30% lower compared to traditional, therefore it could be labelled as a “lower energy value” product, according to EC regulations No 1924 (2006). The addition of sugar and/or sweetener was
Conclusions
The results indicate that fortification with selected herbal extracts can significantly enhanced the antioxidant capacity of aronia drinks. In some cases the synergistic effect has been shown. HPCD allowed for significantly better retention of anthocyanins of fruit-herbal drinks in comparison with TP, while changes of total content of phenolic compounds as well as of antioxidant capacity did not depend on the preservation technique used. Replacing sugar with stevia extracts in diet drink
Acknowledgements
This research has been supported by the Project number PBS3/B8/24/2015 of The National Centre of Science and Development.
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