Potential Use of Dragon Fruit and Taro leaves as functional food: a Review

Abstract

Fruits and vegetables are important constituents of our diet which provide significant quantities of nutrients especially vitamins, minerals and fiber. Daily consumption of fruits and vegetables reduce the risk of cancer, heart disease, premature aging and stress. 'Fruit and vegetable based dried powders̕ are one of the best sources of vitamins, minerals, fibers and valuable bioactive compounds which are essential for human health. The health benefits associated with fruits and vegetables on a daily basis are related to the ingestion of bioactive components. Taking into consideration of associated health benefits on present work deals with a newly development of functional food powder prepared by using dragon fruit and taro leaves because dragon fruit and taro leaves contain vitamin C and B, and phytochemicals which are essential to maintain good health. These two possess various nutraceutical activities such as antioxidant, anticancer, antifungal, curing of various diseases like cancer, cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease etc. The future development of functional foods will require contributions from basic and applied scientists in academia, government and industry.

Review on the pharmacological and health aspects of Hylocereus or Pitaya: An update

“…This is in line with an epidimiological study in 1992 which stated that the potential for cancer in the population would be lower when the population regularly consumed fruits and vegetables 35 . Phytochemicals are chemicals that play a biologically active role in fruits and vegetables 36 .…”

“…With various nutrients and minerals available, red dragon fruit has a positive effect in helping the digestive process, there are anti-diabetic, lowers blood pressure, neutralize toxins in the body, especially toxins from heavy metals, helps treat asthma as well as coughs and prevents various types of cancer especially colon cancer. Dragon fruit prevention of cancer is played by the content of phytoalbumin which has a very high antioxidant content 36 . Iron content is also found in red dragon fruit, and iron is able to increase erythrocyte and hemoglobin levels so that it can be used as an anemia treatment, but research on anemia treatment from dragon fruit is still a clinical trial using rats 12 .…”

“…As is well known, free radicals will harm the body. Being able to cause neurodegenative disease, aging, or heart problems 36 .…”

PENGARUH WAKTU FERMENTASI TERHADAP AKTIVITAS ANTIOKSIDAN DAN KADAR BETASIANIN MINUMAN FUNGSIONAL DARI BUAH NAGA <em>(Hylocereus polyrhizus)</em> DAN UMBI BIT <em>(Beta vulgaris)</em>

“…Kombucha dianggap sebagai minuman fungsional yang dapat meningkatkan kesehatan secara keseluruhan. Kultur kombucha, sering disebut dengan SCOBY (symbiotic culture bacteria and yeast), merupakan kumpulan dari beberapa jenis bakteri dan yeast yang membentuk substansi gelatinoid yang tumbuh dan menghasilkan enzim yang dapat mengubah kandungan gula menjadi berbagai jenis asam, vitamin dan senyawa organik yang berkhasiat (Shade 2011).…”

“…Umbi bit kaya akan sumber senyawa fitokimia, yang meliputi: asam askorbat, karotenoid, asam fenolik, dan flavonoid (Clifford et al 2015). Buah naga kaya akan nutrisi dan mineral seperti vitamin B1, B2, B3, C, protein, lemak, karbohidrat, serat kasar, flavonoid, tiamin, niasin, piridoksin, kobalamin, glukosa, fenolik, betasianin, polifenol, karoten, fosfor, besi dan phytoalbumin (Shekade et al 2018). Pigmen buah yang paling penting dalam buah naga merah adalah betalain seperti betasianin dan betaxanthins (Gengatharan et al 2015).…”