POTENTIAL APPLICATION OF MILK AND MILK PRODUCTS AS CARRIER FOR HERBS AND NUTRACEUTICALS

摘要

In different herbs, a wide variety of active phytochemicals including the flavonoids, terpenoids, lignans, sulfides, polyphenols, carotenoids, coumarins, saponins, plants sterols, curcumins and phthalides have been identified. These phytochemicals have been shown to have several medicinal benefits. There are several ways in which the medicinal benefits of herbs could be conveyed via certain foods as carriers. Milk is one such carrier that has been effectively used to deliver phytochemicals for targeted health benefits in the traditional Indian system of medical science. Addition of herbs or its extracts to milk and subsequent processing treatments, however, poses a definite challenge as possibilities exist for varying degree of interactions among the major and minor biomolecules of milk and bioactive compounds in herbs. Such interactions could have beneficial effect but at times it may also lead to certain practical difficulties if they modify properties of the foods. There are evidences to suggest that addition of polyphenols (mainly phenol) from certain herbs into milk increased antioxidative (free radical scavenging) stability, heat stability, alcohol stability but reduced non-enzymatic browning, RCT (Rennet coagulation time), astringency etc. These modifications in properties of the milk system are of great commercial significance as it may alter processing parameters for the manufacture of products significantly. In present review we have discussed the potential of milk and milk products to act as carrier for nutraceuticals.