Evaluation of physicochemical, antioxidant, microbiological and organoleptic properties of purple basil beverage

Abstract

Development of a functional refreshment beverage containing purple basil was the main purpose of this study. While spontaneously produced beverages were fabricated in two different times were named as Control I and Control II; beverages inoculated with isolated Lactobacilus plantarum strains (LP31 and LP20) were named as Starter I and Starter II, respectively. To the results, pH, brix degrees and total acidity values were changed between 3.15 - 3.37, 5.90 - 6.40 and 0.66 - 0.76%, respectively. During incubation, total phenolic content (TPC) of beverage samples increased. Starter II showed higher antioxidant capacity (AC) than Starter I during all the incubation period. Moreover, Starter II had the highest total monomeric anthocyanin (TMA) content on the 8th day of incubation. The number of total aerobic mesophilic bacteria (TAMB) and lactic acid bacteria (LAB) decreased during the 8-day incubation periods in all of the beverages. However, LP20 was found more suitable with roughly 0.75 log CFU/mL number of LAB decreasing in Starter II as starter due to vegetable origin, when it was almost 3 log CFU/mL in Starter I.