Chantelle Human

Agricultural Research Council, South Africa | ARC · Institute for Deciduous Fruit, Vines and Wine

Phytosomes consist of a phytochemical bound to the hydrophilic choline head of a phospholipid. Their use in food products is gaining interest. However, literature on the use of food‐grade solvents, crude plant extracts as opposed to pure compounds, and unrefined phospholipids to prepare phytosomes is limited. Furthermore, studies on compound stabil...

The poor stability of aspalathin in aqueous solutions is a major challenge in delivering a shelf-stable ready-to-drink (RTD) green rooibos iced tea. The kinetics of aspalathin degradation and the formation of eriodictyol glucoside isomers [(S/R)-6-β-D-glucopyranosyleriodictyol and (S/R)-8-β-D-glucopyranosyleriodictyol] in aqueous buffers were model...

BACKGROUND The shelf‐life of a functional herbal tea‐based beverage is important not only for consumer acceptability, but also for the retention of bioactive compounds. The present study aimed to clarify the role of common iced tea beverage ingredients (citric and ascorbic acids) on the shelf‐life stability of an herbal tea‐based beverage. A hot wa...

Rooibos tea is made from an endemic South African plant, Aspalathus linearis (family Fabaceae), also known by its common name, rooibos (“red bush”). The main herbal tea product is traditional “fermented” rooibos. Interest by the market in antioxidant-rich herbal teas motivated the production of green rooibos as it retains aspalathin, a rare dihydro...

Several Cyclopia species, including C. intermedia, C. subternata, and C. genistoides, are used to make honeybush tea. All species belonging to this genus (Family: Fabaceae) are endemic to the Cape Floristic region of South Africa. The various species differ in terms of their phenolic profiles, but mangiferin, isomangiferin, and hesperidin are ubiqu...

Cyclopia pubescens is an unutilised species that could potentially be used for production of honeybush tea, if general quality criteria for the herbal tea product could be met. This species is at risk of extinction in the wild, but if suitable for production of honeybush herbal tea, its cultivation could be stimulated. Cyclopia pubescens shoots wer...

Phenolic compounds are known to degrade and/or undergo changes during food production and storage. Reaction kinetic modeling is generally used to define kinetic parameters of a food system and predict changes during thermal processing and storage. Data for phenolic acids and flavonoids, such as anthocyanins and flavan-3-ols, have been reviewed in d...

During the conventional production of traditional honeybush tea, the lengthy high-temperature oxidation process creates a bottleneck, due to constrained equipment capacity, resulting in a backlog in production during peak harvesting. A delay in processing would cause deterioration of the fresh plant material, and ultimately a poor-quality finished...

It is challenging to meet the demand for plants with high bioactive content for functional food extract and herbal tea production, with the latter also having an acceptable sensory profile. The optimal harvest season for C. genistoides to maximise phenolic content without compromising sensory quality was determined. Summer produced leaves with high...

Aspalathin, a C-glucosyl dihydrochalcone, could have beneficial effects in the gut through the modulation of the microbiome. However, aspalathin is susceptible to oxidative degradation. The effect of electrospraying conditions on encapsulation of an aspalathin-rich fraction prepared from green rooibos (GRAF; 40% aspalathin, m/m) with Eudragit S100...

Green rooibos extract (GRE), shown to improve hyperglycemia and HDL/LDL blood cholesterol, has potential as a nutraceutical beverage ingredient. The main bioactive compound of the extract is aspalathin, a C-glucosyl dihydrochalcone. The study aimed to determine the effect of common iced tea ingredients (citric acid, ascorbic acid, and xylitol) on t...

Heat processing is required for functional ready-to-drink beverages to ensure a safe product, however, this can result in the loss of bioactive compounds responsible for functionality. The objective of this study was to establish the thermal stability of a novel dihydrochalcone, 3′,5′-di-β-D-glucopyranosyl-3-hydroxyphloretin (2), 3′,5′-di-β-D-gluco...

The bioactive hydrophilic dihydrochalcone, aspalathin, has poor stability and bioavailability hampering its use in functional food ingredients with standardised aspalathin content. The aim of the study was to produce nanoparticles with controlled release to overcome these obstacles. Nanoencapsulation was investigated using both natural (chitosan an...

Retention of phenolic compounds during spray-drying of an anti-diabetic C. subternata extract and physicochemical characteristics of spray-dried powders (pure extract and extract-carrier mixtures) were evaluated. Extract-carrier mixtures contained three levels (250, 500 and 750 g/kg) of the microencapsulating agents, namely corn syrup solids, commo...