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Edible plants have attracted increasing attention as functional foods as they are rich in bioactive compounds with health benefits, including antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities. However, scientific evidence of these health effects is limited. This study is aimed at determining antioxidant and immunomodulatory activities of 25 select vegetables, herbs, and spices commonly consumed in Indonesia. Phytochemical profiles were determined by measuring total flavonoid content and 1H-NMR. Human blood lymphocyte cells were used to probe the immunomodulatory potency and treated with the methanol extract of these vegetables, herbs, and spices. The results showed the enhanced propensity for all tested plant extracts to stimulate lymphocyte proliferation, except Pandanus amaryllifolius. Etlingera elatior, Ocimum xcitriodorum, Kaempferia galanga, and Apium graveolens had the highest lymphocyte cell proliferation stimulation index (SI) at concentrations of 41.67, 16.67, 4.17, and 2.5 mg/mL culture, respectively (SI 2.21 ± 0.05 , 2.62 ± 0.12 , 3 ± 0.05 , and 2.64 ± 0.07 , respectively). The NMR spectra of these four most potent plants showed low peaks in the aromatic/phenolic area and several other peaks indicating the presence of terpenoid, steroid, amino acid, and sugar compounds. The results demonstrate the immunomodulatory potential of all vegetables, herbs, and spices, except P. amaryllifolius, although this potential did not necessarily correlate with flavonoid content and antioxidant activity. Nevertheless, this research showed promising health effect, particularly immunomodulation, of the various local plants. Further elaboration on the specific immunomodulatory activity will be interesting.

The aim of this research was to investigate the ability of three native starches from Indonesia to stabilize oil in water emulsion with and without the addition of lecithin as surfactant. Breadfruit, bengkuang (jicama), and rice starches were extracted from local sources in Banda Aceh-Indonesia. Two variables studied were type of starches and the amount of oil added into emulsion (15 and 25%). Proximate analysis showed that the starch content of breadfruit, jicama and rice were 77.57, 67.41, and 80.51% respectively and the amylose content were 20.50, 16.5, and 13.6%. Results showed that the emulsification index (EI) of emulsion prepared with jicama and rice starches were lower than the EI of emulsion stabilized by breadfruit starch. However, the viscosity of breadfruit emulsion was higher than the other two emulsions. Storage stability test in room temperature also demonstrated that oil in water emulsion made from breadfruit starch had the lowest separation rate over storage period compared to jicama and rice emulsions. Overall, stabilization of 25% oil in breadfruit emulsion was slightly better than addition of 15% oil where the visible boundaries or serum layer of the emulsion was in the range of 5-6 ml at the end of storage test. Breadfruit starch was further modified by reacting it with octenyl succinic anhydride (OSA) to produce OSA-modified breadfruit starch. The degree of substitution (DS) of OSA modified breadfruit starch was 0.0231. OSA-modified breadfruit starch is highly potential to be used as food emulsifier and therefore studied further to examine its ability to stabilize oil in water emulsion.

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