Herbal tea with bacoside loaded saponins: formulation and characterization for food fortification from Bacopa monnieri L

In recent times, there is a renewed interest of herbal tea because of growing consumer awareness for the health benefits of herbal tea consumption in the covid era. Bacopa monnieri is a natural medicine mainly used to enhance nerve impulse transmission, improves memory and mental function as well as the enhancement of other cognitive function because of the presence of triterpenoid saponins and bacoside A. The present experiment was conducted for the development of herbal tea with known health benefits from Bacopa monnieri using different spices or herbal ingredients combinations, i.e ., Pepper, cardamom, and ginger to increase its aesthetic properties. A higher sensory score for pepper-brahmi was found superior with 8.71 (colour), 8.43 (aroma), 8.43 (taste), 8.29 (after taste), and 8.46 (overall acceptability) over three combinations and control. Jal brahmi tisane revealed, 0.036 ± 0.0004 mg/100 ml Bacoside A, 87.72 mg TE/100 ml TAC, 106.02 mg GAE/100 ml TPC, 21,100 µg/100 ml calcium, and 87 µg/100 ml iron, which is essentially good for human health.