Development and evaluation of functional bao buns enriched with bottle gourd peel powder and essential garlic oil

Abstract:

Bao buns are most popular and readily available dumplings, providing a variety of cuisines across Asia with a simple steamed bread, they too have their share of nutrients-sparse foods because the basic ingredients are low in both dietary fibre and micronutrients. The current study investigated the possibility of incorporating a bioactive-rich agro-industrial by-product, bottle gourd peel (BGP) powder, into bao bun formulations in combination with essential garlic oil at two substitution levels, 3%(T₁) and 10% (T₂), as functional fortifying agent. The formulated forms were extensively evaluated for sensory attributes, proximate composition, physicochemical properties such as water holding capacity (WHC), oil holding capacity (OHC) and pH as well as microstructure using scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). All the formulations were subjected to sensory analysis, and T₁ performed best among various texture parameters with panel scores of 8.53 (taste), 8.57 (aroma) 8.50 (texture), 8.53(color) by preference in a 9-point hedonic scale. A substantial enrichment of dietary fibre and mineral profile in T₁ was demonstrated by the nutritional assessment, which yielded a significantly higher crude fibre (2.46% vs 1.10%) and ash content (1.18% vs 0.66%) as compared to control group This was confirmed with functional property analysis, which showed a significant improvement in WHC (2.8 g/g) and OHC (1.9 g/g) for T₁ as compared to control (1.9 g/g and 1.4 g/g, respectively). SEM evaluation of microstructure revealed a well-developed open crumb structure, more porous in T₁ and XRD results showed that degree of crystallinity was reduced due to the disrupting effect on gluten-starch network mediated by fibre. Taken together, these results indicate that 3% BGP powder is the optimal enrichment level for producing boa’s with better nutritional value, techno functional properties and consumer acceptability.