Nutritional profile and bioactive potential of Ivy gourd (Coccinia grandis L. Voigt) fruit and quality evaluation of its developed biscuits

Abstract

Ivy gourd is a valuable medicinal plant that serves as an indispensable source of nutrients and bioactive compounds. The study sought to explore the nutritional profile and bioactive potential of ivy gourd fruit (IGF) and the quality evaluation of its developed biscuits. Results demonstrated that IGF flour contained an excellent amount of total phenolic content (17.33 mg of GAE/ g), total flavonoid (7.61 mg of QE/ g), and total carotenoid contents (32.14 mg/ g), and a high amount of crude fiber (7.03 %), and protein content (2.35 %). Methanol extracts of the fruit exerted good antioxidant capacity. Wheat flour was substituted by IGF flour in three different percentages (5 %, 10 %, and 15 %) to formulate composite biscuits. The proximate analysis interpreted that the crude fiber, and protein content of biscuits increased from 2.21 to 9.32 %, and 14.25 to 29.31 %, respectively. Among the formulations, T₄ biscuits exhibited more hardness (30.53 N) with increased flour substitution. The sensory evaluation also depicted that the formulated biscuits were significant (p ≤ 0.05) and acceptable by the test panelists. The overall acceptability of the developed biscuits achieved the highest score for T₂ followed by T₃, T₄, and control (T₁).