Biochemical Composition and Sensory Evaluation of Desert Date Flowers (Balanites aegyptiaca Del) Infusion

Issoufou Amadou^1*, Amadou Tidjani Ilagouma², Oumarou Samna Soumana³, Xiang-Rong Cheng⁴

¹Laboratory of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agriculture and Environment Sciences, Dan Dicko Dankoulodo University of Maradi, Niger.

²Faculty of Science and Technique Abdou Moumouni University of Niamey, Niger.

³Faculty of Agronomy and Environment Sciences, Boubacar Bâ University of Tillaberi, Niger.

⁴School of Food Science and Technology, Jiangnan University, Wuxi, China.

Corresponding Author Email: issoufsara@gmail.com

Desert date tea (DDT) is originated from the local Balanites aegyptiaca flowers infusion. Thus, the objectif of this work is to evaluate the antioxidant activity, phenolic contents and the sensory quality of DDT. The antioxidant activity was determined, total phenols and total flavonoids were quantified. Total phenols and flavonoids followed LC-MS analysis, and sensory evaluation were also carried out. Substantial quantities were recorded for both quantity of phenolic and flavonoids accounted for 3.06 mg galic acid /g and 21.60 mg rutin /g respectively. Compounds like narcissin, hirsutrin, quercetrin, ilixantrin, rutin, isorhamnetin and diverse flavone were identified. Lower antioxidant activity and overall acceptability of DDT were noticed than that of quercetin and commercial green tea. The sensory result showed again that the green tea and DDT scored almost the same in flavor character. It can be concluded that DDT could be widely used as a source of polyphenols with antioxidant and sensory quality potential; therefore, introducing numerous health benefits for the consumer.

Balanites Aegyptiaca; Desert Date Tea; Antioxidant; Sensory Quality

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