Background: Medicinal plants and herbs contain a plethora of phytochemicals that have demonstrated promising therapeutic potential in the management of hyperglycemia. Therefore, this study was undertaken to develop a fortified nutraceutical biscuit with antidiabetic potential.
Methods: Fortified biscuits were prepared by adding medicinal plants. Their chemical composition (moisture, protein, fat, ash, and carbohydrate), total phenolic content (TPC), total flavonoid content (TFC), antioxidant activity and antidiabetic potential were evaluated. Data were compared
using one-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by Fisher’s LSD test at a 5% level of significance.
Results: Substitution of medicinal plants with wheat flour increased the moisture content from 8.24 to 9.86% and protein content from 1.28 to 1.86%. A decreasing trend was observed for ash (1.45-1.21%), fat (11.81-11.45%) and carbohydrate (77.22-75.62%). The TPC of biscuits varied from 7.11 to 9.69 (mg GAE/100 g), where sample C showed a significantly higher (p <0.05) TPC than others. The TFC of biscuit samples ranged from 17.95 to 32.07 (mg QE/100 g). Gradual increasing of medicinal plants to plain biscuits manifested an enhancement of the overall antioxidant activity (8.12 to 9.14%). Furthermore, sample C showed the highest inhibitory activity against the dominant digestive enzymes such as α-amylase (66.9%) and α-glucosidase (51.4%), which were accountable for the prompt digestion and absorption of carbohydrates.
Conclusion: The findings of this study showed that fortification of biscuits with medicinal plants would improve the therapeutic properties of the biscuits with increased antioxidant and antidiabetic potency.