The influence of natural sweetener (Stevia rebaudianaBertoni) on bioactive compounds content in chokeberry juice

Abstract

The aim was to determine the differences in nutritional quality between chokeberry juices sweetened with sucrose and green stevia powder. The quality of chokeberry juices during refrigerated storage was studied. Chokeberry juices with added green stevia powder had the higher content of analyzed bioactive compounds in comparison with juice samples sweetened with sucrose; vitamin C content increased up to two times, total phenol content up to 6% and antioxidant capacity for 3%. The content of studied bioactive compounds and antioxidant capacity during storage in period of 30 and 60 days was significantly reduced with the exception of steviol glycosides which content was not significantly reduced during the storage period. Practical applications Chokeberry juice is a popular, widespread product of chokeberry fruit characteristic for the dark intense red color, slightly unpleasant, bitter taste and extremely rich bioactive compounds content. Because of high nutritional quality, chokeberry juice is often consumed but with the biggest barrier of characteristic astringent taste which can be diminished by addition of sweetener. Producers often combine a low‐cost sweeteners like sucrose which shows numerous negative effects on human health. A good alternative to the sucrose and artificial sweeteners are natural sweeteners extracted from the plant material like steviol glycosides. Except sweetness, stevia products like green powder shows beneficial effect on the bioactive compounds content in the juices sweetened with it. Juices sweetened with stevia shows increased content of bioactive compounds, so such product may represent quality product from category of functional food.

Effect of Stevia rebaudiana Bert. Addition on the Antioxidant Activity of Red Raspberry (Rubus idaeus L.) Juices

“…Therefore, the addition of 10 g/L of stevia as crude extract before mash heating or juice pasteurization or as leaves powder increases the ascorbic acid content. In this regard, Zablur et al found that black chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa) juices sweetened with stevia dry-grinded leaves contain up to twice the vitamin C of chokeberry juices with added sucrose [28]. Such an increment seems higher than that in our results with raspberry juices; however, the data for the unsweetened chokeberry juice were not reported, and thus, the effective increment through the addition of stevia cannot be figured for that berry juice.…”

Influence of Sweeteners (Sucrose, Sucralose, and Stevia) on Bioactive Compounds in a Model System Study for Citrus–Maqui Beverages

“…Due to its functional interest, as well as its interactions with other phenolic compounds, vitamin C was also considered for this study, to obtain a complete picture of the influence of the diverse sweeteners on this bioactive nutrient, in the designed citrus–maqui beverage. In this sense, the effect of sweeteners on vitamin C in different beverage matrices has also been previously studied by other authors [ 35 , 38 ].…”

“…Nevertheless, samples containing stevia showed a slight increase in the degradation speed after day 9, when compared to sucrose or sucralose. Conversely, other authors have reported a protective effect of stevia on vitamin C, with a decrease in the rate of degradation in this vitamin over time [ 38 , 42 ].…”

The Effect of Plant Additives on the Stability of Polyphenols in Cloudy and Clarified Juices from Black Chokeberry (Aronia melanocarpa)

“…Stevia, with which chokeberry juices were sweetened, was an additional source of polyphenols, including flavonoids and phenolic acids. During 60-day storage, the losses of total polyphenols, flavonoids and cyanidin-3-O-glycosides in juices with stevia were greater than the losses in sucrose-sweetened juice [52]. Extracts of various origins had different effect on the retention of anthocyanins in blackberry juice.…”