IPB Creates Healthy Drink from Sea Leeches and Wild Ginger
Marine resources such as marine leeches (Discodoris sp.) can be made into functional beverages/drinks. Marine leeches have antioxidant properties and contain taurine. The three researchers are R. Marwita Sari Putri from Food Technology Department, Indragiri Islamic University of Riau, Prof. Nurjanah from the Department of Aquatic Product Technology, Faculty of Fisheries and Marine Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University (FPIK IPB) along with Kustiariyah Tarman from the Center for Coastal and Marine Resources Studies (PKSPL) of LPPM-IPB conducted an experiment to see synergistic between taurine from marine leech with temulawak in powdered form of functional drinks.
The purpose of this study was to determine the concentration of raw material composition by considering the synergistic effect of taurine on functional drinks and to find out the effect of preparation on functional drink powder to the amount of taurine.
Marine leech raw materials (Discodoris sp.) used in this study were obtained from Cirebon Waters, West Java. Additional ingredients for formulations include ginger, temulawak, fresh lemon and maltodextrin. This research consisted of two stages, namely the preparation stage of raw materials, as well as the formulation stage of functional drinks. The formulation stage started with the determination of the best functional drink powder composition in terms of organoleptic.
From the experiment, it was shown that fresh sea leech meat from Cirebon has taurine content of 29.88 milligrams per hundred grams. The content of taurine in these fresh sea leeches is lower compared to taurine content in fresh snails meat (164.17 milligrams per hundred grams), beef liver (45 milligrams per hundred grams), beef (48 milligrams per hundred gram), while higher when compared to taurine in skipjack (3 milligrams per hundred grams).
Taurine is the most abundant free amino acid contained in the tissues of the heart and brain muscle. Taurine contains sulfur amino acid which has an important role in some biological process, i.e. development of central nervous system (CNS) and retina, membrane stabilization, as well as reproduction and immune system. The content of taurine in fresh sea leech meat is greater than that of taurine in the ginger rhizome which is only about 13.45 milligrams per hundred grams. Higher plants have lower taurine content compared to lower plants, whereas marine animals contain higher taurine than mammals.
Based on the results of this study the researchers concluded that the comparison of 20% sea leeches and 20% of ginger in the formulation of this drink causing a synergistic effect on the content of taurine. The phase of sea leech preparation influences the amount of taurine found in the functional drink powder. The top three formulas accepted organoleptically were T1 (Discodoris sp. 20 percent, ginger 40 percent, 20 percent curcuma, 20 percent lemon), T2 formula (Discodoris sp. 25 percent, ginger 40 percent, 15 percent curcuma, lemon 20 percent ) and T3 formulas (Discodoris sp. 30 percent, ginger 40 percent, 10 percent curcuma, lemon 20 percent). (TK)
