Reconstituted pomegranate juice (RPJ) was thermally treated with high-temperature pasteurisation (HTP) at 95°C and mild-temperature pasteurisation (MTP) at 80°C for 30 s respectively. As a comparison, the effect on physicochemical properties, including antioxidant activities and microbial inactivation was eavluated. Both MTP and HTP showed effective inactivation of microbial growth to negligible level with MTP taking almost half pasteurisation-time (-46.3%) as compared to HTP, indicating possible less energy usage. MTP and HTP treatment delivered insignificant difference in pH, titratable acidity, total soluble solids and colour changes (ΔE) based on Commission Internationale de l’Elcairage (CIE) colour system. A significantly higher CIE a values and reduction in L and b were obtained for MTP-juice indicating an increase in red tonalities due to increase in anthocyanin contents. As for antioxidant activity and extractability of bioactive compound, interestingly HTP delivered better results due to more phenols and anthocyanin were released during the heating, leading to further release of initially membrane‐bound phenols. These findings suggested that both HTP and MTP are able to meet the microbiological safety and comparable physicochemical qualities. Nonetheless, HTP has shown higher functional values due to higher extractability of antioxidant compounds.

Diabetes mellitus is complicated multifactorial disorders characterised by hyperglycemia or glucose intolerance. Globally, the number of people suffering from diabetes has increased steadily. Jackfruit leaf, a rich source of phytochemicals offers the opportunity for the development of value-added products. A fermented jackfruit leaf beverage product was developed using symbiotic culture of bacteria and yeast (SCOBY) as cost-effective beneficial treatment for mankind in the management of diabetes. The effectiveness of this fermented jackfruit leaf beverage as an anti-diabetic therapy agent was evaluated using Streptozotocin-induced Sprague Dawley rats model for 4 weeks. The findings depict that, there was a remarkable reduction of blood glucose level in fermented jackfruit leaf-treated diabetic rats as opposed to non-treated diabetic rats, comparable with metformin-treated diabetic rats. The body weight and various relative organ weights of diabetic rats treated with fermented jackfruit leaf beverage showed a healthy recovery sign from diabetes symptoms. The blood haematology profile, liver and kidney function analysis revealed no toxic effect of prolong fermented jackfruit leaf beverage consumption. These results indicated that fermented jackfruit leaf beverage has similar anti-diabetic properties with commercial anti-diabetic drugs with no adverse side effect. Promisingly, it offers a cheaper source to alleviate the diabetes epidemic in a natural way.

Mango leaves are known to possess many health benefits but the industry only focused on mango fruit production, resulting in abundant leaves being underutilized. In this study, we managed to transform mango leaves into a new fermented drink, which has a pleasant taste through the bio-fermentation process. Different maturity levels of mango leaves were selected; premature leaves (light brown, LBML), intermediate mature leaves (light green, LGML) and mature leaves (green, ML), which were subjected to a fermentation process using bacteria and yeast. Tannin content, organic acids profile and various enzymes functionality activities (e.g. inhibition of tyrosinase, elastase and acetylcholinesterase) studies were determined on fermented mango leaves drink. The reduction of tannins content in all fermented mango leaves resulted in a less astringent taste as a consequence of the microbial action to break down tannins. Acetic, oxalic, kojic and quinic acid are some of the organic acids detected in fermented mango leaves that contributed to its slightly acidic taste. In comparison to non-fermented mango leaves, all fermented samples, particularly LBML drink showed a significant improvement (P<0.05) in tyrosinase inhibition (87.96%). Fermented mango leaves also exhibited good inhibition activity towards elastase (>80%) and acetylcholinesterase (>90%). Further histopathology examination on various rat’s organs (kidney, liver, spleen, and stomach) showed no sign of inflammation symptoms. Through limit toxicological evaluation, the safety consumption rate (IC50 value) for fermented mango leaves was 1000 mL/50 kg of human bodyweight. The improvement functionality activities of fermented mango leaves with a higher inhibition rate against tyrosinase, elastase, and acetylcholinesterase indicate its great potential as a food remedy for anti-ageing treatment.