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Including herbs as bioactive ingredients in traditional dairy products

Tuesday, 11 November, 2014, 08 : 00 AM [IST]

Pravin Sawale, Richa Badola, Vidhu Yadav and Dr S A Hussain

Introduction
Rapid urbanisation and industrialisation have produced advancement on the social and economic fronts in developing countries such as India which has resulted in dramatic lifestyle changes leading to lifestyle related diseases. Due to the appearance of several lifestyle-related health disorders, there has been increasing interest in the study of functional foods supplemented with functional components or substances. Functional foods provide some health benefit beyond their nutritional value. Functional foods contain bioactive compounds which offer the health and wellness benefits that have been linked to functional foods. By 2014, the international functional food market is expected to reach a value of about $29.75 billion.

Herbs have been used as food and medicine for centuries. A wide variety of active phytochemicals including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulfides, polyphenols, carotenoids, coumarins, saponins, plant sterols, curcumins and phthalides have been identified in herbs. In the recent past, research interest has been focused on various herbs that possess hypolipidemic, anti-platelet, anti-tumor or immune-stimulating properties that may be useful adjuncts in reducing the risk of cardio-vascular diseases (CVD) and cancer (Hussain et al., 2015). Today, industry is showing a great deal of interest in utilising these herbal bioactives for functional foods manufacture. Ayurveda has mentioned several ways in which the medicinal benefits of herbs could be conveyed via certain foods as carriers. Milk is one of the most important of such carriers (Sawale et al., 2013b). In India, a significant amount of milk produced is utilised for traditional dairy products. Conversion of liquid milk into traditional dairy products not only preserves milk solids for longer time but also adds value to milk. Indian traditional dairy products have a huge demand and their domestic markets are well established. Incorporation of herbal bioactives into traditional Indian dairy products not only helps the industry to meet the growing consumer demand for these foods but also facilitates in competing with ever increasing world functional food market (Sawale et al., 2013a).

Application of herbs into traditional Indian dairy products
Butter and ghee
In India, about 39 per cent of the total milk produced is converted into ghee and butter. The clarified milk fat, particularly ghee, has the characteristics to absorb all the medicinal properties of the herbs with which it is fortified, without losing its own qualities. Exploiting this concept several medicated ghee preparations have been developed and about 55-60 medicated ghee types are reported in Ayurvedic literatures and they have also been used in the treatment of various diseases. Herbs contain high amounts of phenolic compounds which possess great antioxidant properties. The natural antioxidant properties of herbs have made their use in the formulation of functional foods specifically targeted for the people suffering from CVD (Najgebauer-Lejko et al., 2009). Presently, the herbal ghee being marketed in the global market is mostly sold as medicine (medicinal ghee). These products possess a typical flavour, a bitter or pungent taste and a dark colour. Such therapeutic preparations are therefore not acceptable for regular consumption. At NDRI, Karnal, herbal ghee incorporating the functional attributes of Arjuna ghee has been developed for providing beneficial effects against CVD, and the product was more stable to oxidative deterioration as compared to conventional ghee. The consumer acceptability of this product was also very good (Rajanikant and Patil, 2005). Unlike in case of medicated ghee preparations, Arjuna ghee can be replaced with normal ghee in the daily diet.

Also the antioxidant properties of herbs led their use into fat-rich dairy products for retarding auto-oxidation there by prolonging the shelf-life. Moreover, increasing sensitivity of consumers to synthetic ingredients as well as the increasing awareness about the effect of diet on their health contributed to the increasing trend to use natural additives like herbal extracts for the stabilisation of fat-rich dairy foods like ghee, butter oil, butter etc. Sage (Salvia officinalis) and Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis) extracts are the most widely used for this purpose (Ozcan, 2003). These extracts have antioxidant activity many times stronger than synthetic antioxidants like BHA or BHT (Estévez et al., 2007). Some of the reported study’s related to herbal ghee where the herb fortified ghee has shown good antioxidants activity as compared to ghee supplemented with synthetic antioxidant is depicted in Table 1.

Table 1 Studies related to antioxidant effect of herbal supplemented ghee

Type of Ghee	Herbs used	Synthetic antioxidant compared with herb	References
Sheep Ghee	Rosemary (Rosmarinus officinalis)	Mixture BHA and BHT(1:1)	Amr, 1990
Cow ghee	Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus)	BHT	Pawar et al., 2012
Cow ghee	Vidarikand (Pueraria tuberosa), Shatavari (Asparagus racemosus) and Ashwagandha (Withania somnifera)	BHA	Pawar et al., 2014

Dahi, lassi and shrikhand
Lassi, a ready-to-serve traditional fermented milk beverage has got wide popularity in India as well as in overseas markets. Sweet lassi with its characteristic sweet and slightly sour taste can be used as a food carrier for herbal bioactives like Aloe vera juice etc. At NDRI a functional lassi and dahi were developed by supplementing the herb Aloe vera (Aloe barbadensis Miller) and probiotics. Animal study of functional lassi revealed that it has better immunoprotective effects compared to control lassi. The authors have reported that Aloe vera supplementation has supported the growth of probiotic strain. The probiotic viability was more than 7 log cfu/ml during 12 days storage period (Hussain et al., In Press).

Shrikhand being a semi-soft, sweetish-sour, whole milk product prepared from lactic fermented curd can easily harbour herbs/herbal extracts without undergoing significant changes in sensory quality. A study conducted by Landge et al. (2011) reported that addition of 0.5 per cent Ashwagandha powder to shrikhand has improved the organoleptic quality and the product was remained acceptable up to 52 days at refrigeration temperature.

Sandesh
Sandesh is a very popular heat-desiccated product of coagulated milk protein mass called chhana. Incorporation of herbs such as turmeric (Curcuma longa L.), coriander (Coriandrum sativum L.), curry leaf (Murraya koenigii L.), spinach (Spinacia oleracea) and aonla (Emblica officinalis), separately as a paste, at the 10 per cent level into Sandesh improved its antioxidant properties. Herb coriander incorporation resulted in increased shelf-life of herbal sandesh up to eight days and 30 days when stored at 30±1°C and 7±1°C, respectively (Bandyopadhyay et al., 2007).

Conclusion
Herbal nutraceuticals are natural substances with wide range of health attributes. In India, most of milk is converted into traditional dairy products which are consumed by people of all age groups. Traditional dairy products can act as potent carrier for the herbs which can add functional attributes to the product thereby improving consumers well being. However, several technological challenges have to be overcome to develop milk products enriched with herbs. Process modifications are needed to reduce the undesirable effects of herbs incorporation on palatability of foods. Research should be focussed to find out the effect of processing conditions on the bioavailability of functional components present in herbs. Knowledge of interactions of herbal and food constituents and their effect on human health has to be studied thoroughly. Scientific community must apply modern techniques to assure the efficacy and safety of herbs and their bioactive components for their safe use in food formulations.

References
Amr, A.S. (1990). Role of some aromatic herbs in extending the stability of sheep ghee during accelerated storage. Egypt J Dairy Sci, 18(2): 335-344.

Bandyopadhyay, M., Chakraborty, R. and Raychaudhuri, U. (2007). Incorporation of herbs into sandesh, an Indian sweet dairy product, as a source of natural antioxidants. Int J Dairy Tech, 60(3): 228-233.

Estévez, M., Ramirez, R., Ventanas, S. and Cava, R. (2007). Sage and rosemary essential oils versus BHT for the inhibition of lipid oxidative reactions in liver pâté. LWT-Food Sci Tech, 40(1): 58-65.

Hussain, S.A., Patil, G.R., Yadav, V. and Singh, R.R.B. (In Press). Effect of storage on sensory quality, pH, wheying-off and probiotic count of lassi supplemented with Aloe barbadensis Miller. Indian J Dairy Sci, (In Press).

Hussain, S.A., Raju, P.N., Singh, R.R.B. and Patil, G.R. (2015). Potential herbs and herbal nutraceuticals: Food applications and interactions with food components. Crit Rev Food Sci Nutr, 55(1): 94-122. DOI: 10.1080/10408398.2011.649148.

Landge, U.B., Pawar, B.K. and Choudhari, D.M. (2011). Preparation of Shrikhand using Ashwagandha powder as additive. J Dairying Foods Home Sci, 30(2): 79-84.

Najgebauer-Lejko, D., Grega, T., Sady, M. and Domagala, J. (2009). The quality and storage stability of butter made from sour cream with addition of dried sage and rosemary. Biotech Anim Husbandry, 25(5-6): 753-761.

Özcan, M. (2003). Antioxidant activity of rosemary, sage and sumac extracts and their combinations on stability of natural peanut oil. J Med Food, 6(3): 267-270.

Pawar, N., Arora, S., Bijoy, R.R. and Wadhwa, B.K. (2012). The effects of Asparagus racemosus (Shatavari) extract on oxidative stability of ghee, in relation to added natural and synthetic antioxidants. Int J Dairy Tech, 65(2): 293-299.

Pawar, N., Gandhi, K., Purohit, A., Arora, S. and Singh, R.R.B. (2014). Effect of added herb extracts on oxidative stability of ghee (butter oil) during accelerated oxidation condition. J Food Sci Tech, 51(10): 2727-2733.

Rajanikant and Patil, G.R. (2005). Development of process for herbal ghee. NDRI News, 10(2): July-September.

Sawale, P.D., Singh, R.R.B. and Arora, S. (2013a). Stability and quality of Herb (Pueraria tuberosa)-milk model system. J Food Sci Tech, DOI: 10.1007/s13197-013-1067-y.

Sawale, P.D., Singh, R.R.B., Kapila, S., Arora, S., Rastogi, S. and Rawat, A.K.S. (2013b) Immunomodulatory and antioxidative potential of herb (Pueraria tuberosa) in mice using milk as the carrier. Int J Dairy Tech, 66 (2): 202-206.

(Dr Hussain is scientist, and Badola and Yadav are Ph.D. scholars, National Dairy Research Institute (NDRI), Karnal, Haryana. They can be contacted at abdulndri@gmail.com ,richa.foodtechno@gmail.com and yadav.vidhu40@gmail.com. Sawale is dairy superintendent, Experimental Dairy, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University (SDAU), Sardarkrushinagar, Banaskantha, Gujarat. He can be contacted at Pravins92@gmail.com)