Assessment of Antioxidant Properties of Classic Energy Drinks in Comparison with Fruit Energy Drinks

Abstract

Energy drinks (EDs) contain sugar, caffeine, and other bioactive compounds. Recently, new types of EDs, enriched with fruit juices, natural pigments, and plant extracts, have been launched in the market. The objective of this study was to investigate the composition and antioxidant properties of the most popular classic and fruit EDs. The study was carried out including 24 of the most popular energy drinks (classic and fruit EDs). The composition of EDs, especially caffeine and sugar, and antioxidant properties (antioxidant capacity, total polyphenols, total anthocyanins, vitamin C) were analyzed. Energy drinks with added fruit juice or natural pigments had a significantly higher (p ≤ 0.05) antioxidant capacity compared to classic energy drinks. Fruit EDs had a higher concentration of polyphenols and vitamin C. In some fruit EDs, slight amounts of anthocyanins were found. Generally, EDs are not a rich source of polyphenols and are not distinguished by high antioxidant capacity. However, fruit energy drinks and/or ones with added natural pigments have much better antioxidant properties than classic EDs. Both classic and fruit EDs contain a large amount of caffeine and sugar, therefore, it would be advisable not to drink large amounts of EDs for possible related health issues.

Assessment of the caffeine-containing beverages available in the local markets, and development of a real energy drink based on the date fruit

“…Nadir et al (2017) determined the total and reducing sugar content of some Egyptian date varieties juices and it was in the range of 11.71 to 12.22% and 8.95 to 10.51% dw, respectively. The estimated sugars concentration in this study is in the range that declared in many fruit energy drinks containing sugars (27.5-52.5 g/250 mL) (Nowak & Goslinski, 2020). The advantage is that all sugars come from the date fruit with no sugar added.…”

“…pH of the drink was slightly neutral (ranged 6.26-6.04) that may be due to the low percent of vitamin C in both date and coffee (Vignoli et al, 2011;Ahmed et al, 2014). Most of fruit energy drinks have a pH ranged between 2.32-3.60 (Clapp et al, 2019;Nowak & Goslinski, 2020) while it was 2.45 in created mango energy drink of Márquez Cardozo et al (2017). With reference to the total soluble solids of the prepared drink; it started from 18% (control) then decreased by increasing the added coffee reaching 16.33% in drink containing 80 mg caffeine/250 mL due to the added coffee brew (7.0%) that diluted the created juice.…”

“…The progressive decrease of the total soluble solids, reducing and a total sugar is the result of the dilution of the TSS by the coffee brews addition. Consideration should be taken with a regular consumption of the invented drink due to the risk of excessive sugar intake which is conductive to overweight and obesity (Nowak & Goslinski, 2020).…”

“…A number of researchers have been created alternatives of energy drinks based on fruits. For example, Márquez Cardozo et al (2017) formulated mango energy drink containing caffeine at a concentration of 30 mg/100 mL, though Nowak & Goslinski (2020) evaluated various fruit energy drinks containing pineapple, apple, strawberry, raspberry, carrot and pomegranate juice.…”

Process optimization for the preparation of tea and fruit‐oriented energy drink: A nutritional approach

“…The high phenolics content is contributed by tea extract, AJC, mint leaves, and fenugreek leaves which are rich source of phenolics compounds like chlorogenic acid, (+)‐catechin, (−)‐epicatechin, p‐coumaroylquinic acid, procyanidin B2, pyrocyanidin B1, procyanidin C1, phoridzin, quercetin‐3‐galactoside, quercetin‐3‐glucoside, quercetin‐3‐rhamnoside (Kalinowska et al., 2014), (−)‐epicatechin‐3‐gallate, (−)‐epigallocatechin‐3‐gallate, (−)‐epigallocatechin, epicatechin (Kumar, Kaur, Tanwar, et al, 2018), rosmarinic acid (Fialová et al., 2015). Antioxidant activity significantly increased owing to the high free radical scavenging activity of mint leaves (34.21%) (Kumar et al., 2017), fenugreek leaves (57.45 ± 2.44%) (Aqil et al., 2006), apple juice (43.16 ± 5.15%) (Maragò et al., 2015), black tea (>70%) (Tong et al., 2019), presence of phenolic compounds as well as ascorbic acid in AJC and herb extract (Kaur & Kapoor, 2002, Kumar et al., 2017, Kumar, Kaur, Tanwar, et al, 2018, Nowak & Gośliński, 2020). Ginger contains nearly about 50 compounds such as shogoal, gingerols, or diarylheptanoids and many more that appreciably escalates the antioxidant activity.…”