Physico-chemical and sensory evaluation of poly-herbs incorporated functional spent hen meat patties

Introduction

From the backyards of Indian villages, Indian poultry industry has experienced tremendous growth over the past few decades, transforming it into one of the largest and most dynamic segments of the country's agricultural economy. Spent hens are mature laying birds that have completed their egg-laying cycle and although their meat is tougher and less preferred for direct consumption, it can be effectively utilized in processed meat formulations, thus reducing waste and enhancing food sustainability. Hence, the demand and marketability of these spent hens could be increased by processing the tough meat in to a palatable product. Many researchers have made several attempts to efficiently utilize spent hen meat to develop emulsion based convenience meat products such as sausages, patties and kababs (Kondaiah et al. 1988; Anjaneyalu and Sharma, 1991; Rao 1996) [12,22] . Among these, patties is one which could find predominant position in the food industry, particularly in fast food outlets (Biswas et al. 2006) [5] . In recent days, the growing global prevalence of diabetes mellitus, particularly type 2 diabetes, has sparked an urgent need for functional foods that provide not only essential nutrients but also therapeutic benefits. In the wake of this health crisis, researchers and food technologists are increasingly exploring the development of cost-effective, natural and culturally acceptable dietary interventions that can aid in the prevention and management of chronic metabolic disorders. One such emerging approach is the incorporation of medicinal herbs and underutilized animal protein sources into functional meat products. The incorporation of polyherbs, a synergistic blend of medicinal plant ingredients into meat matrices provides an opportunity to enhance both the nutritional and therapeutic value of the product. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 21,000 plant species are used globally for medicinal purposes. Of these, nearly 2,500 species are found in India, with several hundred being widely utilized in traditional medical systems such as Ayurveda, Unani, and Siddha (Pullaiah and Naidu, 2003) [21] . In recent decades, the growing demand for natural products with antidiabetic properties has led to increased research interest in hypoglycaemic agents derived from medicinal plants (Elavarasi et al. 2013) [7] . Several medicinal plants traditionally used in Indian and Southeast Asian medicine have shown promise for glycemic control. Notably, the leaves of Cassia auriculata (Avaram), Psidium guajava.L (Guava), and Moringa oleifera (Moringa) have been recognized for their antidiabetic and antioxidant properties. Avaram is a traditional herb widely used in Siddha and Ayurvedic medicine. Being rich in flavonoids, tannin, and polyphenols, its extracts have demonstrated hypoglycaemic and antioxidant effects by modulating carbohydrate metabolism and reducing oxidative stress (Kumar et al. 2013) [13] . Guava leaves contain bioactive compounds such as quercetin, flavonoids, and tannins that inhibit α-glucosidase activity, reduce postprandial blood glucose spikes, and improve insulin sensitivity (Ojewole, 2005) [19] . Moringa is known as the "miracle tree" due to its exceptional nutritional and medicinal profile. Its leaves are rich in chlorogenic acid and isothiocyanates, which have shown to improve glucose tolerance and suppress gluconeogenesis (Mbikay, 2012) [15] . When incorporated into spent hen meat products, these herbal ingredients not only enhance the antioxidant and functional value of the final product but also create a novel, affordable and health-promoting meat-based dietary option. Moreover, the synergistic action of poly -herbs in modulating multiple pathways involved in glucose metabolism may provide a more effective dietary intervention than single-compound approaches. It leverages the nutritional density of animal protein with the therapeutic potential of traditional medicinal herbs to offer a product that may support glycemic control in diabetic and pre-diabetic populations. Converting the underutilized animal protein resource into functional meat patties fortified with poly-herbs provides helpful remedy for metabolic related diseases. This article envisages the utilization of medicinal plant leaves as glycemic control indices and spent hen meat as protein sources in the patties of functional chicken patties. Physicochemical parameters and sensory attributes such as pH, emulsion stability, cooking yield, appearance, flavour, juiciness, tenderness and overall acceptability of the polyherbs incorporated spent hen meat patties have been assessed in this study.

Materials and Methods

In order to conduct the experiment, live spent birds (60-70 weeks old) were purchased from the Livestock Farm Complex, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli and slaughtered as per the standard procedure followed in the Department of Livestock Products Technology, VCRI, Tirunelveli. The spent hen carcasses were washed, deboned and placed in deep freezer at a temperature of -18º C for subsequent use.

Preparation of poly-herbs leaves powder

Matured leaves of Avaram (Senna auriculata), Guava (Psidium guajava L.) and Moringa (Moringa oleifera) were collected from the trees available in the VCRI TNI, campus and washed thoroughly with plain portable water. After washing, the leaves were air dried and then dried in the hot air oven also at a temperature of 55ºC for 12 hours, 55ºC for 9 hours and 55ºC for 8 hours respectively. The dried avaram, guava and moringa leaves were then powdered in the mixer. The ground herbal leaves powders were then sieved and packed in sterile PET (Polyethylene Terephthalate) jar for subsequent use.

Preparation of spent hen meat patties

Spent hen meat was partially thawed at refrigerator temperature (4±1º C) and was then cut into small cubes and minced in the meat mincer (Model No. TS 12, Omas Food machinery, Italy) using 8mm plate. Spent hen meat patties were prepared by mixing minced meat with spice mix, salt, refined wheat flour, condiments and vegetable oil for making up the emulsion. The emulsion prepared was finally incorporated with three different combinations of poly-herbs leaves powder (Avaram, Guava and Moringa) viz., (1.0:1.5:2.5), (1.5:2.5:1.0) and (2.5:1.0:1.5) respectively and in control without addition of poly-herbs leaves powder. After that, the emulsion was filled into moulds and pressure cooked for 20 minutes. The meat blocks after cooking were cooled and sliced into patties. A total of six trials were conducted for each combination of poly-herbs and subjected to physico-chemical analysis viz., pH, emulsion stability, cooking yield and sensory evaluation to select the optimum level of inclusion of poly-herbs leaves powder in the spent hen meat patties.

Physico-chemical characteristics pH

The pH of the spent hen meat patties sample was measured using a digital pH meter (Digisun Electronic System, Model: 2001). About 5g of spent hen meat patties sample was homogenised with 45 ml of distilled water in a laboratory blender for about one minute. The pH was recorded by immersing the combination glass electrode of digital pH meter into the homogenate. The pH meter was pre calibrated using standard solution with pH 7.0 as per the user manual instructions, prior to measurement.

The emulsion stability of the sample was determined by using the method outlined by Baliga and Madaiah (1971) [4] and modified by Kondaiah et al., (1985) [11] . Fifteen grams of emulsion was packed in polyethylene bags and heated to 80ºC for 20 minutes in a constant temperature water bath. Then, the fluid released was drained and the sample was weighed. The Emulsion stability is calculated by using the below mentioned formula.

Cooking yield is used to predict the yield of cooked product. It was determined by the method outlined by Verma et al. (2012) [25] . The weight of the product was recorded before and after cooking from which the cooking yield was calculated by using the formula,

Sensory evaluation

The organoleptic qualities of spent hen meat patties were assessed by subjecting the patties samples to a sensory score of appearance, flavour, texture, juiciness and overall acceptability by a trained and semi-trained taste panel drawn from the Department of Livestock Products Technology, Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli on a nine-point hedonic scale as given in the score card.

Statistical analysis

The data was subjected to statistical analysis in SPSS (version 20.0) software as per the standard procedure outlined by Snedecor and Cochran (1994) [23] .

Results and Discussion

The results of proximate analysis and sensory evaluation of the different treatments of poly -herbs incorporated spent hen meat patties is presented in Tables 1 and2.

Physico-chemical characteristics pH

It was observed that the pH of the spent hen meat patties did not differ significantly with the incorporation of the polyherbs. The pH of the control patties was 6.07±0.04 which increased marginally but not significantly. The increase in pH could be attributed to the alkalinity of the poly-herbs. Babu et al. 1994 [3] attributed the increase in pH to loss of moisture on cooking resulting in increased salt concentration and change in net protein charges due to denaturation. The results obtained in the present study were in concomitance with that of Hazra et al. (2011) [10] who observed that the addition of moringa leaf extract increased the pH values of cooked ground Buffalo meat significantly (p<0.05). In Contradiction, Grigelmo-Miguel et al. (1999) [9] , reported that the addition of dietary fibre in meat product formulation lowered the pH (6.4-5.4) of the solution and thereby of the product pH. Caceres et al. (2004) reported that the incorporation of soluble dietary fibre did not affect the pH of cooked sausages. Wu and Lin (2011) [27] reported that the addition of xylooligo saccharides in raw meat did not alter the pH values. Slightly higher pH was observed in cooked patties as compared to raw emulsion in the study of Nitin Mehta et al. (2013) [18] .

Emulsion stability

There was no significant difference noticed in emulsion stability of poly-herbs included samples of control and of different treatments. Though there was a decrease in emulsion stability of the treatment with 2.5:1.0:1.5% level of inclusion of poly-herbs, the difference was not significant. The emulsion stability was highest in the treatment II (1.5:2.5:1.0), that contained guava (Psidium guajava L.) (Swati Pawar et al., 2024) [26] at maximum level of inclusion and the lowest was in treatment III (2.5:1.0:1.5) with avaram (Senna auriculata) at maximum level of inclusion. Increase in emulsion stability of spent hen meat patties of treatment III (2.5:1.0:1.5) was attributed to higher dietary fibre in avaram leaf powder. In a study conducted by Madane et al. (2019) [14] with inclusion of moringa leaf powder an increasing emulsion stability was reported. Similar trend was also noticed by Govind et al. (2013) [8] and Mounika et al. (2021) [16] in oat flour incorporated chicken sausages and meat balls respectively. Nitin Mehta et al. 2013 [18] observed that with an increase in level of psyllium husk, a significant (p<0.05) increase in the emulsion stability and cooking yield in treated as compared to control patties. They considered that this increase was attributed to the presence of higher amount of soluble dietary fibre entrapping and holding moisture in the form of a gel during application of heat.

Cooking yield

Cooking yield of various treatments ranged from 94.29 ± 0.51% to 95.67 ± 0.51%. There was no significant difference among the control and the treatments, but there was a noticeable increase in the yield of treatment samples than the control samples and the highest was noticed in treatment II (1.5:2.5:1.0). This increase in cooking yield could be due to high amount of dietary fibre in guava leaves. The results of this study are also in line with observations of Al-Juhaimi et al. (2016) [1] , who found that the inclusion of Moringa olifera seed powder at 6% level improved the cooking properties of beef patties.

Sensory evaluation

The spent hen meat patties treated with poly-herbs showed lesser appearance scores than the control, but the difference was not significant. The treatment I (1.0:1.5:2.5) with highest moringa leaf powder had the least appearance score, because of the increased iron & phenolic content of moringa leaves, imparting dark colouration to the product. There was a highly significant difference in the flavour scores between control and the treatments and treatment II (1.5:2.5:1.0) with maximum guava leaf inclusion which had the highest flavour score. The dominant flavour of guava leaf powder masked the flavour of meat and other ingredients in the spent hen meat patties. Higher flavour score of this treatment might be due to effective inhibition of lipid peroxidation which was also observed by Nath et al. (2016) [17] . Tenderness and juiciness of various treatments showed a similar trend. The treated samples differed highly significantly (p<0.01) with control. Treatment I samples had the lowest scores & Treatment II had the highest scores for tenderness and juiciness. The increased tenderness and juiceness of treatment II might be attributed to the effect of maximum level of inclusion of guava leaf powder. The overall acceptability scores of control and treatments differed highly significantly (p<0.001). Spent hen meat patties treated with the combination of 1.5:2.5:1.0% poly-herb inclusion showed significantly higher scores than the other two treatments. The lower overall acceptability scores of treatment I (1.0:1.5:2.5)%, might be attributed to slight bitterness of moringa leaf powder and also due to presence of high amount of tannins, polyphenols and flavonoids in moringa leaf. Tyagi et al. (2020) [24] also reported a similar effect on flavour and undesirable bitter aftertaste in cookies prepared by incorporating higher levels of giloy stem powder (GSP). In contrast, Hazra et al. (2011) [10] , observed significantly higher overall acceptability scores in cooked ground meat incorporated with drumstick leaf extract (1,1.5 & 2%). The research findings concluded that treatment II (1.5:2.5:1.0%), had the highest overall acceptability score. This result was in congruance with Pawar et al. (2023) [20] , who concluded that upto 2.5% level of incorporation of guava leaves powder in the preparation of cup cake was found to be acceptable level for all the sensory parameters like colour, taste, flavour and overall acceptability

Conclusion

Based on the above findings, it is concluded that spent hen meat being relatively poor in sensory properties was used for the development of functional spent hen meat patties, with incorporation of poly -herbs like avaram, guava and moringa leaves powder in different combinations. Upon physicochemical and sensory evaluation the spent hen meat patties with inclusion of poly-herbs at 1.5% aavarm: 2.5% guava: 1.0% moringa leaves powder improved the overall acceptability of the spent hen meat for the development of functional spent hen meat patties.

Acknowledgement

AcknowledgementThe author and his team are extremely grateful in expressing their thankfulness to Veterinary College and Research Institute, Tirunelveli, Tamil Nadu Veterinary and Animal Sciences University, for providing all facilities and funding essential for the successful completion of this unique study.

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