Predictive Modeling of Glycemic Indices of Value-Added Coconut (Cocos nucifera L) Jaggery Enriched with Specific Ingredients

Abstract

Coconut (Cocos nucifera L) jaggery is an alternative sweetener, especially among rural Asian communities. The focus of this study is the evaluation of in vitro digestibility and prediction of glycemic index (PGI) for four types of coconut jaggery; jaggery produced from traditional sap collection method using hal bark (Vateria capalifera) (HAL Jaggery), the jaggery prepared from pure sap collected from a novel sap collection device (NSCM Jaggery), jaggery from collected sap through a novel sap collection method with 0.2% cinnamon (Cinnamomum zeylanicum) (CIN Jaggery) and the jaggery value added with 0.05% of nutmeg (Myristica fragrans) (NUT Jaggery). Digestion and digestibility tests for each type of sweetener were done with cane sugar as a comparison. Results revealed that four types of jaggery have different hydrolysis rates from 30 to 180 min. The hydrolysis index (HI) of cane sugar was significantly higher than that of the others (55 ± 0.023%), whereas the lowest HI was observed in NUT Jaggery (32 ± 0.014%). According to the in vitro glycemic prediction, all four types of coconut jaggery samples were categorized under a medium GI sweetener, while cane sugar was categorized as a high GI (69.91 ± 0.02) sweetener.