This study was conducted to determine the total phenolic (TPC) and total flavonoid content (TFC) as well as the antioxidant activity of 50% ethanolic extracts from different parts of Camellia sinensis (shoot, young and matured leaves). Comparison was also made between black (fermented) and green (unfermented) tea. For green tea, the results showed that the shoot contained significantly higher total phenolic content, followed by the young and matured leaves (p
Clinacanthus nutans (Burm. F.) Lindau or locally known in Sabah, Malaysia as ‘Sabah Snake Grass’ has been ethnobotanically used to treat various diseases in Asian countries. This study was conducted to determine the total phenolics content (TPC), flavonoids content (TFC) and antioxidant activity of herbal teas developed from C. nutans leaves with different drying techniques (microwave-oven dried and freeze dried) and infusion time (1, 2, 5, 10, 15 and 20 min). Ferric reducing/antioxidant power (FRAP) assay, 2,2’-azino-bis(3-ethylbenzothiazoline- 6-sulphonic acid (ABTS) and 2, 2-diphenyl-1-pycryl-hydrazyl (DPPH) free radical scavenging assays were used to investigate the antioxidant capacity. The highest TPC of herbal tea was observed in 20 min infusion of unfermented microwave-oven dried leaves (177.80 ± 19.10 mg TAE/L), while the highest TFC was observed in 10 min infusion of fermented microwave-oven dried leaves (22.13 ± 1.53 mg CE/L). Short infusion times from 5 min to 15 min were able to extract high amount of phenolics compounds. Unfermented tea contained higher TPC content (P < 0.05) as compared to fermented tea, while, TFC showed no significant difference between both types. Freeze dried infusion shows no significant difference (P > 0.05) as compared to microwave-oven dried for TPC, TFC and antioxidant capacity. Moderate and low correlation was observed between TPC and FRAP values (r = 0.507) and between TFC and ABTS values (r = 0.256). Preparation of C. nutans herbal tea as potential natural antioxidant source can be used as a basic reference for future research on the dietary intake of these herbal teas.
The development of food products using composite flour has increased and is attracting much attention from researchers, especially in the production of bakery products and pastries. This article focuses on the use of composite flour to produce food products, namely bread, biscuits, and pasta, with looks at on its impact, following some improvements made, on the sensory quality, rheology characteristics, and nutritional values as well as its overall acceptance. The blending of wheat flour with various sources of tubers, legumes, cereals and fruit flour in different percentages to produce variety of food products are also reported in this review. It was found that composite flour used to produce food products is still able to maintain similar characteristics to products made from full-wheat flour. The positive effects of the use of composite flour can be seen in the final product related to the functional and physicochemical properties and health benefits of raw blended flour along with percentage blending. Overall, composite flour is a good new approach to utilizing uncommon food products as the application of composite flour produced products with different characteristics and quality, depending on the types and percentage of wheat flour used in the formulation.