Lipoxygenase inhibitory and antioxidant properties of the developed functional food supplements (FFS)

The evolution of the human diet over the past 10,000 years to our current modern pattern of intake has resulted in profound changes in the dietary behavior leading to lifestyle diseases reaching an epidemic proportion in industrialized countries, with similar trend being observed in developing countries. Foods contain a wide range of bioactive compounds with multiple physiological properties. Because of the importance of a healthy diet on lifestyle disease prevention and management, potential health benefits of naturally occurring bioactive compounds in foods are of greater interest. This research area has recently led to a wide variety of functional foods available in the world wide market. Locally available food substances are found to be healthy alternatives to medicines as they are rich in antioxidants and other inhibitory properties. In this context, a study was conducted to develop two Functional Food Supplement (FFS) using locally available food items like Barley, Ragi, Banana, Defatted Soy Flour, Drumstick leaves and Mushrooms. Dehydration and Fermentation were the processing techniques applied to standardize the FFSs. In depth study on antioxidant and lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitory properties were carried on and the results showed higher activities in FFS developed with dehydration technique. The lipoxygenase (LOX) inhibitory activity of fermented FFS reduced to 40 per cent when compared to 55 per cent of dehydrated FFS.