Production of black herbal tea from Bacopa floribunda: effect on mineral profile, antioxidant and anticholinesterase properties of Bacopa floribunda leaves

This study investigate the effect of converting Bacopa floribunda BF leaves into Bacopa florbunda black herbal tea BFHT on the mineral profile,  antinutrients, antioxidants, Anticholinesterase and lipid peroxidation inhibitory properties of Bacopa floribunda leaves. Bacopa floribunda leaves were  plucked, destalked, withered, rolled, fermented/oxidized, milled, dried, cooled and packaged. The antinutrients phytate, saponin and tannin content of B.  floribunda leaves reduced significantly (P ˂ 0.05) after processing into BFHT. The mineral ratios and molar ratios of minerals BFHT were within the critical  values making them available for absorption. BFHT exhibited a very high and significant (P ˂ 0.05) total phenolics (60.08 mg GAE/g), total flavonoids  (12.96 mg QE/g) and reducing power (50.38mg AAE/g). The scavenging activities of BFHT extract against DPPH and Nitric oxide (NO) was significantly (P ˂  0.05) higher than freshly harvested B. floribunda leaves. BFHT (IC50 = 74.26 μg/ml) demonstrated a high significant (P ˂ 0.05) inhibitory capacity against  Acetyl cholinesterase enzymes. The inhibition capacity of BFHT (IC50 = 0.65 μg/ml) against Fe2+ induced lipid peroxidation was significantly (P ˂ 0.05)  higher than freshly harvested B. floribunda leaves (IC50 = 0.78 μg/ml). The study has demonstrated that high quality herbal tea BFHT could be produced  from B. floribunda leaves and also serves as another method of food preservation.