SENSORY, GC-MS AND FTIR ANALYSIS OF AQUEOUS EXTRACT OF HIBISCUS SABDARRIFFA AND VERNONIA AMYGDALINA HERBAL TEA WITH BLENDS OF GINGER AND LEMON ZEST

Abstract

The use of herbal remedies, especially in the form of teas for management of various diseases is gaining increasing popularity, making them the main stay of health care system, especially among the rural populace in the developing countries. Therefore, it is imperative to carryout proper analysis and screening of these plants, such as Hibiscus Sabdarriffa and Vernonia Amygdalina, to investigate their informed use. This research aimed at producing herbal teas from leaves of Hibiscus Sabdarriffa and Vernonia Amygdalina with additives of ginger and lemon zest with acceptable sensory attributes and also to investigate the phytocomponents of these herbal teas produced using GC-MS spectroscopy and FTIR spectroscopy. Ginger, lemon zest and fresh leaves of Hibiscus Sabdarriffa and Vernonia Amygdalina were collected from modern market areas of makurdi Benue State, authenticated by a plant taxonomist in Department of Botany, University of Agriculture Makurdi. Aqueous extracts of the herbal teas were analyzed using GC-MS Clarus 500 Perkin Elmer system. Identification of functional groups of samples (was done using FT-IR spectroscope (Shimadzu, IR Affinity 1, Japan). Results: FT-IR analysis of the herbal tea samples revealed the presence of phytochemicals like alkanes, alkenes, Carboxylic acids, phenols, alcohols, flavonoids, aromatics and saturated aliphatic esters,. GC-MS analyses of aqueous extract of the samples provided different peaks determining the presence of twenty two compounds with highest abundance. Twelve compounds were identified for Vernonia Amygdalina herbal tea sample and ten for Hibiscus Sabdarriffa herbal tea sample. The findings from this research showed that herbal teas produced from leave of Hibiscus Sabdarriffa and Vernonia Amygdalina had acceptable sensory attributes and also contains bioactive constituents of pharmacological importance for management of diseases which were identified by GC-MS and FTIR analysis.