IPB Researchers Creates Okra Jelly and Strawberry Drinks
Researcher team from Nutrition Community, Faculty of Human Ecology, Institut Pertanian Bogor (Fema IPB), creates jelly drinks from okra veggie and strawberry. The members are Prof Evy Damayanthi, Brian Sugara, and Karsi Ambarwati.
“This drink is one of the development product made of okra veggie and strawberry. This drink hopes to be an alternative to help increasing fruit and vegetable consumption. Because, jelly drink is one of the people’s favorite drink,” Prof Evy says.
Besides as traditional medicine and ingredients cuisine, okra can made as jelly drink because okra textures are elastic and mucous. But taste, color, and rotten aromatic in okra not suitable to be jelly drink. “According to that, done adding natural perisa with fruit. One of the fruits that has natural dye properties and a fresh sweet taste is strawberries. Strawberries are also rich in antioxidants and have very many properties. In addition, strawberries also contain vitamin C, fiber, folate, potassium, and low in calories,” Prof Evy explains.
After that, okra and strawberry jelly drink contains potassium and sodium helps balancing fluid in the body. This research has been presented at the Indonesian Association of Professors Association of Malaysia (IPIMA) in Malaysia on November 6-9, 2017. Evy, okra is a kind of vegetable originating from Africa, but its utilization in Indonesia is still very little. This is because still at least people who know this vegetable. Whereas okra can serve as a traditional medicine. Okra is very good consumed people with cancer, diabetes, hypertension, and nearsightedness, because of the high content of antioxidants found in these vegetables. "In one hundred grams of okra pod contains 33 kilo calories, 1.93 grams of protein, 3.2 grams of dietary fiber, 82 milligrams of calcium, 299 milligrams of potassium, 7 milligrams of sodium, 23 milligrams of vitamin C, 60 μg folate, 716 IU of vitamin A, and 31.3 μg of vitamin K.
In the experiment, five formulations of octane and strawberry extract are 100: 0 (F1), 80:20 (F2), 70:30 (F3), 60:40 (F4), and 50:50 (F5). Based on the consideration of organoleptic results or panelist's acceptance of each of the formula and results of the best nutritional analysis, the formula F2 (comparison of the okra extract and strawberry extract 80:20) was selected. The contribution of potassium and sodium nutrients to the nutritional adequacy ratio (FGR) of the selected formula (F2) is 2.8 percent potassium and 1.8 percent of sodium. The economic value of mineral price per unit (milligram) in selected products (F2) is Rp 22 per milligram for potassium and Rp 106 per milligram for sodium. (NR)
