Ms. Nisha Pujari will present her Pre-synopsis as per the detail below:

Date: 29th February, 2024

Time: 0900 – 1030 hrs.

Venue: CTARA Conference Room No.2

Topic: Nutritional merits of jaggery

Supervisors: Prof Amit Y. Arora, Prof Narendra G. Shah

RPC members: Prof. Satish B. Agnihotri, Prof. Sanjay M. Mahajani and Prof. K. V. Venkatesh

Abstract:

Saccharum officinarum L., commonly known as sugarcane, is one of the most widely cultivated crops worldwide. In addition to its global value as the main source of sucrose, sugarcane possesses a variety of bioactivities owing to its myriad constituents. Non-centrifugal sugar (NCS), commonly known as jaggery, is a sweetener produced by concentrated sugarcane juice. More than 70% of the total world jaggery production is done in India. The major components of interest in NCS are sugars, moisture, minerals and bio-actives. Despite the reported health benefits of sugarcane raw juice & jaggery, phytochemical studies in sugarcane are scarce and its bioactive compounds have still not been adequately exploited. Hence there is a need to assess these bio-actives and check for their biological absorption and function.

In the present research work a detailed study of the nutritional components of sugarcane raw juice, clarified juice, scum and jaggery were conducted in order to establish a mass balance and get a clear understanding of where the nutritional losses take place, if at all. Our focus was mainly on the minerals and the bio-actives possessed by jaggery. It was found that although there were almost negligible losses in polyphenols through scum, a huge amount (>50%) of mineral content was lost through it. Hence there is a need to optimize the step of scum removal i.e. clarification. It was also found that due to the heating of raw sugarcane juice, some of the propolyphenols might have been released, which gave a higher polyphenolic content in clarified juice as well as NCS, which was also supported by its antioxidant activity data. The Maillard reaction also contributes to the antioxidant potential of a food product. However, this trend was not seen for flavonoids.

Diabetes Mellitus (DM) commonly referred to as diabetes is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycaemia (high blood glucose levels over a prolonged period), either because the pancreas does not produce enough insulin, or because the cells do not respond to the insulin that is produced. A practical approach to reducing the postprandial hyperglycaemia is to retard the absorption of carbohydrates after food intake. This could be achieved through the inhibition of α-amylase and α-glucosidase present in the gastrointestinal tract. In the present study, NCS showed a strong positive effect on the inhibition of both these enzymes. Also, a significantly strong correlation was also observed between phenolic and flavonoid contents and inhibition % of this α-glucosidase (r = 0.662, 0.770; p = 0.052, 0.015). Also, a moderate positive correlation was seen between α-amylase inhibition and TPC (r=0.54). Overall, the presence of certain minerals and polyphenols makes NCS a good candidate as a healthier sweetener over refined sugar. On basis of the above results, a clinical trial study was conducted to evaluate the GI of jaggery and also to in reality how jaggery fares when compared to refined sugar on blood glucose. It was found that jaggery definitely helped in regulating blood glucose levels in on average although GI values of sugar and jaggery were similar but on assessing individual responses to jaggery or sugar on blood glucose, jaggery was much more superior as compared to sugar. Jaggery was helpful in maintaining healthy blood glucose levels of 85% of sample population whereas only 30% of sample population were able to maintain a healthy blood glucose profile with sugar consumption.