Physico-Chemical and Sensory Profile of Conventional and Supercritical Ginger Extract Nutrified Ginger-Iced Tea

Ginger and its extracts are helpful in ameliorating numerous degenerative disorders. Gingerol, the main nutraceutic, from Ginger possesses significant antiradical and disease preventive potentials. Addition of Ginger in iced tea enhances the sensory as well as nutritional qualities of the product. Gingerol supplementation in Ginger iced tea is an effective measure to improve the overall health promoting properties of the product. The objective of the current investigation was to evaluate the effect of Ginger extracts obtained via two different extraction techniques (conventional solvent extraction-CSE and supercritical fluid extraction-SFE) on the sensory response of the resultant product. Ginger iced tea was prepared by mixing green tea leaves extract, artificial sweetener and Ginger extract (3% CSE and 0.1% SFE extract). The ginger iced tea was pasteurized, packaged and placed at chilling temperature (4oC). Results revealed that iced tea supplemented with supercritical extract scored the highest taste profile grade as 7.26±0.15, while iced tea supplemented with conventional extract scored the lowest (7.22±0.23). The overall acceptability decreased during storage period from 7.44±0.21 to 7.04±0.19. Conclusively, iced tea supplemented with supercritical Ginger extract ranked scores better than the other treatments. Thus, Ginger can be incorporated in the designed foods to improve the sensory perception as well as nutritional quality of the developed product.