Medicinal & Aromatic Plants
Open Access

Abstract

Antiglycation and Antioxidant Activities of a Ready to Serve Herbal Drink of Syzygium Cumini Bark Extract

Perera PRD, Ekanayake S and Ranaweera KKDS

Diabetes mellitus is a major public health issue in most countries around the world. About 60% of the world’s population use herbal medicines as a remedy to prevent complications which arise due to glycation of proteins, enhanced by free radical formation. A previous study has proven the antiglycation and antioxidant potentials of Syzygium cumini decoction. The present study attempted to produce a ready to serve herbal drink using a water extract of Syzygium cumini bark. The consumer acceptable formulation selected by a sensory evaluation was investigated for the physical characteristics, microbial stability and antiglycation and antioxidant potentials up to a three months storage period. Antiglycation and antioxidant potentials were determined by Bovian Serum Albumin assay, ABTS and DPPH assay respectively. The overall acceptability of herbal formulation of 20 ml of decoction and 80 ml of 0.01% sucralose solution was optimum. Antiglycation activity of the freshly prepared drink was 35.8 μg/ml and did not decrease significantly during storage of 45 (39.2 μg/ml) and 90 days (41.1 μg/ml). The antioxidant potentials of fresh drink, during storage on day 45 and 90 days were 1314, 1200 and 1095 mmol/g TEAC and 82.3, 84.8 and 87.0 μg/ml for ABTS+ and DPPH· assays respectively. The herbal drink was microbiologically safe up to three months under refrigerated conditions and physical characteristics did not change significantly. It is concluded that S. cumini decoction could be used as a valuable ingredient for the production of an herbal drink with many health benefits.