ISSN : 0974 - 7435 Volume 11 Issue 11

BioTechnology
An Indian Journal
FULL PAPER
BTAIJ, 11(11), 2015 [426-435]

Characterization of dehydrated functional fractional spinach powder

Ankita, K.Prasad*
Department of Food Engineering and Technology, Sant Longowal Institute of Engineering and Technology,
Longowal – 148106, Punjab, (INDIA)
E-mail: [email protected]

ABSTRACT KEYWORDS
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) leaves respire and transpire even after har- Spinacia oleracea;
vesting. Moisture of spinach leaf during post harvest period loss rapidly Spinach;
due to transpiration, which reduces the cell turgor and results in the leaves Dehydration;
of reduced acceptability and quality. The rate of faster deterioration of Powder;
this important leafy winter vegetable thus categorized among highly per- Characterization.
ishable commodity. Processing of such commodities is therefore es-
sential to utilize for their future use. Dehydration is an important unit
operation applied mainly to remove the moisture in form of vapor from
its surface into the surrounding to obtain relatively shelf stable dried
form. For easier handling, storability and usability, the leaves are gener-
ally crushed into powdered form and often fractionated to incorporate
the functionality in it. The efforts have been made under the present study
to obtain the functional spinach powder. The prepared powder was char-
acterized and suggested for the possible benefits and their uses during
off season as the ready to use nutritional and functional material.
 2015 Trade Science Inc. - INDIA

INTRODUCTION cessing mainly due to conversion of chlorophyll to

pheophytin and pyropheophytin applying the non-en-
Spinach (Spinacia oleracea) is a plant belongs zymatic pathway[3]. Formation of chlorophyllin and
to Amaranthaceae or Chenopodiceae family and con- arresting further conversion is a major challenge and
sidered to be the native to central and south western could be achieved through the controlled process-
Asia. It is cultivated throughout the world as cool ing for obtaining the highly acceptable dehydrated
season annual leafy vegetable[1, 2]. It is preferably leaf powder enriched with carotenoids, vitamin C
utilized in food as raw, boiled, canned, frozen, de- and vitamin E content[3-6].
hydrated, pureed form and cooked or baked into Spinach is known for its antimicrobial, anti car-
various dishes. Chlorophyll is the important con- cinogenic and antioxidant activity[1]. Anti aging prop-
stituent of leaf responsible for photosynthesis and erties associated with spinach leaves with consid-
green coloration. The color of the leaves changes erable amount of ß-carotene (2-6mg/100g), folic acid
from green to olive green or brown on thermal pro- (120 mg/100g) and riboflavin (0.25mg/100g) make
BTAIJ, 11(11) 2015 Ankita and K.Prasad 427

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this leaf a unique food material[5]. Apart from the layer uniformly on the aluminum tray hooked with
benefits, the powder may be uses as replacer of ar- the developed precision dehydration chamber to
tificial color as demand of natural pigment is in- study the effect of isothermal dehydration tempera-
creasing in present era whether the carotenoids, por- tures (50, 60, 70, 80 and 90OC) having temperature
phyrin colors, flavonoids and betalains colours[7,8]. fluctuation of ±1°C[12]. The dehydration kinetics and
Spinach contains high amount of moisture, which the resultant products were compared[13,14] and time
reduces rapidly due to transpiration resulting in the temperature combination was identified as initial
loss of cell turgor. Being enormous exposed surface dehydration temperature of 800C for 1 hour and fin-
area in respect to the occupied volume, the transpi- ishing temperature of 600C for 2 hours (unpublished
rational loss are more and resulted in the rapid quality data).
deterioration thus spinach leaf is categorized under The obtained dehydrated leaf samples under the
highly perishable category. Processing of such com- identified time temperature of dehydration the dehy-
modities is therefore essential to enhance the shelf drated leaves were obtained and manual crushed
life for its extended use. Dehydration is an impor- before using mixer grinder to get spinach leaf pow-
tant unit operation applied mainly to remove the der. Further, 60 BSS screen was used to classify the
moisture in form of vapour from the surface into the leaf powder into fine and coarse fractions, which
surrounding to obtain relatively shelf stable dried was characterized on the basis of physico-chemical
form[9,10]. For easier handling, storability and usabil- properties[3].
ity the leaves are generally crushed into powder form Physical characteristics
and often fractionated to incorporate the functional-
ity in it[3,4]. The physical properties were evaluated using
However, major problems associated with the standard method as described elsewhere[15]. Dehy-
powders containing fine particles are the inherent dration characteristics as dehydration ratio with
difficulties in reconstitution, problems of dusting or water absorption capacity (WAC) and water solu-
lumping and improper flow properties during han- bility index (WSI) were evaluated[3].
dling[11]. But addition of small quantities of leaf pow- Chemical characteristics
der not only improves the taste and color of food Chemical composition for moisture content,
stuffs but also enhance the nutritional values. Con- crude protein, crude fiber, crude fat, carbohydrate
sidering the mentioned importance, the present study and ash was evaluated using standard method[16]. The
was conducted specifically in order to characterize total antioxidant capacity (TAC) of spinach leaf pow-
the functional leaf powder of spinach so as to use as der was assessed using 1,1-diphenyl-2-
ready to use material in various food formulations. picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) as free radical scavenging
activity[17].
EXPERIMENTAL
Phytochemical identification
Sample Preparation The presence of phytochemical in the extracts of
Spinacia oleracea var Palak RNG - All Green spinach leaf powder was assessed using Shimadzu
Akshit leaves were harvested and prepared for sub- GC-2010. Nitrogen gas was used as carrier gas and
jecting the process of blanching and dehydration[3,4]. maintained at 10 psi inlet pressure using FID and
Steam blanching as pretreatment was provided to AB inno-wax column (60 m X 0.25 mm id, film thick-
the prepared spinach leaves for a period of two min- ness 0.25 µm). Injector and detector temperatures
utes in a developed precision steam blancher con- were maintained at 270 and 280°C, respectively.
sisted of two interconnected chambers, one as steam Column temperature programmed from 60 to 180°C
generation and another as blanching chamber for ef- at 3°C/min with hold time of 2 minutes and from
fective and reproducible blanching process[12]. The 180 to 250°C at 5°C/min with hold time 20 min,
untreated and blanched samples were spread as thin respectively. The flow rate of carrier gas was 1.2
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ml/min and split ratio was 80:1. The data were pro- fractionated spinach fine powder was acquired in
cessed on GC solutions software for leaf powder the range of 500 to 3500 magnifications using scan-
composition. GC-MS analysis was obtained on a ning electron microscope (Jeol JSM-6100, Jeol Ltd,
Shimadzu Mass Spectrometer-2010 series system Tokyo, Japan). The sample for acquiring the micro-
using same column and conditions as GC. Helium graphs was prepared and mounted on double sided
was used as carrier gas. EI source and mass range tape on the used aluminum stubs. Further, adhered
were 70 eV and 40-750 amu, respectively. To iden- sample was coated with gold - palladium (60:40) at
tify the presence of phytochemicals in the sample an accelerated voltage of 15 kV under vacuum[19]
NIST and Wiley computer libraries have been used. (Suksomboon and Naivikul, 2006). A digital cam-
Optical characteristics era head cooled with a Peltier mechanism was
present for capturing the image by microscope.
The optical characteristics of spinach powder
samples were assessed using Hunter Colorimeter in Statistical analysis
terms of L (luminance or brightness), a [red (+) - The reported data are the average of triplicate
green (-)] and b [yellow (+) - blue (-)] values[18]. observations. The mean ± standard deviation (SD)
Thermal characteristics was calculated for each treatment. In order to deter-
mine any statistically significant effects prevailed,
Differential scanning calorimetric (DSC) char- Duncan multiple range test at Pd”0.05 was applied
acterization was carried out for the spinach powder using SPSS 16.0 and Microsoft excel software pack-
using Mettler DSC- 30 (Mettler Toledo, Switzer- age (Microsoft Corporation, USA).
land) instrument, equipped with STARe software.
Heat flow calibration was carried out using indium RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
standard at 10OC/min heat scan rate. Approximately,
20 mg sample was weighed, mixed with water (1:3 Figure 1 represent the pictorial representations
w/w) and were taken into standard aluminium pan. of dehydrated spinach leaf powder with the frac-
The pan was press sealed with a lid using sample tionated coarse and fine power fractions as obtained
press supplied with the instrument. Thermal scan- using 60 BSS (250µm) sieve. The particle size dis-
ning was carried out using sealed pan made in simi- tribution characteristics of fine fraction with scan-
lar ways without any sample incorporated to con- ning electron micrograph are presented in Figure 2.
sider as reference. Particle size distribution reflects the particles are
FTIR characteristics narrowly distributed as measured through the use of
Infrared spectra of the powdered sample was laser diffraction technique. Rosin Rammler function
recorded at room temperature using FTIR spectrom- also known as Weibull function was applied as it
eter (SPECTRUM-2000, Perkin Elmer, USA) in the describes the particle distribution to fairly accurate
range 700–4000 cm-1. The sample was placed di- level.
rectly in the sample holder. A background was col- Physical characterization
lected before each sample was analyzed then sub- The physical characterization was performed
tracted from the spectra of sample prior to analysis. mainly on dimensional, gravimetric and frictional
After every scan, a new reference background spec-
trum was taken. The ATR crystal cleaned with hot
water and acetone was examined for spectral au-
thenticity in order to avoid the chance of any con-
tamination error.
Microstructure analysis
Figure 1 : Mixed, coarse and fine spinach powder frac-
Scanning electron micrographs of functional tions
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Figure 2 : Particle size distribution of fine spinach powder fraction

characteristics. The surface area to volume ratio for Fine powder of leaves show higher degree of
the spinach leaves were found to be enormous and cohesiveness[20] and thus exhibit higher frictional
in order of 37.80 x 103 m-1. This higher ratio of sur- characteristics and so the coefficient of friction[21,22]
face area to volume have favoured faster removal on different applied surfaces. Dehydration ratio was
of water from the spinach during initial phase of de- found to be 21.55. The rehydration studies were con-
hydration and also helped to keep the material tem- ducted in terms of water absorption capacity (WAC)
perature around wet bulb temperature to convert and water solubility index (WSI). Fine powder frac-
chlorophyll into chlorophyllide through enzymatic tion has shown significantly higher water binding
pathway as judged the increased level of phytol pres- characteristics with the 3.607 and 41.650 as the WAC
ence in the dehydrating product[3]. The average par- and WSI, respectively[23] TABLE 1.
ticle size of fine spinach powder fraction was found
to be 105.987±0.462 µm Figure 2. Bulk density is CHEMICAL CHARACTERIZATION
the ratio of mass of sample to the occupied volume
was found to be insignificant difference for the fine Proximate composition
spinach powder fraction (422kg/m3) on comparison TABLE 2 represents the proximate composition
with the mix fractions (413kg/m3) from which it was with the chlorophyll content and antioxidant capac-
separated TABLE 1. ity as free radical quenching capacity of different
The frictional properties were examined for the powder fractions. The proximate analysis was con-
powders are angle of repose and coefficient of fric- centrated on moisture, crude protein, crude fat, crude
tion. Angle of repose for the fine powder (46.9800) fiber, ash and carbohydrate content on difference
was found to be significantly higher than the mix method excluding the fiber content. Protein and crude
and coarse powder fractions (40.022 to 42.3060). fiber are found to be in good amount in leaf pow-
The coefficient of friction for the spinach powders der[24]. The moisture content of spinach powder was
were determined on glass, plywood and galvanized found to be 4.64±0.28%. The crude protein content
steel sheet and found similar trend for fine powder for the fine powder fraction was found to be 22.14%,
fraction on comparing with coarse spinach powder which was significantly higher than mix or coarse
fraction TABLE 1. These phenomenons are impera- spinach powder fractions TABLE 2. Proteins from
tive in processing, particularly in designing the han- leafy vegetables are utilized effectively and abun-
dling equipment. dantly in different food applications. The mineral
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TABLE 1 : Physical properties of dehydrated spinach leaf as powder at combination temperature

Bulk Angle of Coefficient of friction Water absorption Water solubility

Spinach density repose ca pacity index
Glass Steel Plywood
leaf powder
(kg/m3) (O ) - - - (g/g) (%)
a b b a a b b
Mix 413±4.041 4 2.306±2.459 0.279±0.002 0.341±0.007 0.359±0.007 2.7 46±0.0 19 40.200±0.707
b b b b b a b
Coarse 375±1.586 4 0.022±1.710 0.265±0.000 0.319±0.006 0.319±0.009 3.396±0.002 40.250±2.192
a a a a a a a
Fine 422±1.045 46.980±1.310 0.306±0.130 0.344±0.011 0.354±0.013 3.607±0.416 41.650±2.050
Means in the same column followed by the different letters are significantly different (p  0.05)

TABLE 2 : Chemical characteristics of spinach leaf powder

Spinach Crude Crude Crude
Moisture Ash Carbohydrate Chloro phyll Antioxidant
leaf Protein Fat fiber
powder (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) (%) mg /100g mg/g
a b b ab a b
Mix 4.64±0.28 20.84±0.51 3.63±0.11 25.39±0.69 12.50±0.07 33.00±0 .65 6 53.400±0.850 371.92±6.55b
b

Coarse 4.43±0.06b 18.36±0.60c 3.54±0.45b 27.80±0.37a 12.33±0.62a 33.55±1 .24b 615.700±6.650c 354.94±6.53c
Fine 4.48±0.11b 22.14±0.27a 3 .87±0.01a 20.10±0.93b 11.37±0.04b 38.05±0.50a 673.400±1.980a 390.72±2.80a
Means in the same column followed by the different letters are significantly different (p  0.05)

matter as expected was found to be lower in the fine mass spectroscopy. Interpretation of mass spectra
powder fraction. Major health benefits coupled with was performed using National Institute of Standard
functional properties such as fat replacement prop- and Technology (NIST) and Wiley database. Simi-
erties and water holding capacity have created the larity index was used to select the identified prob-
interest in the high fiber ingredient, particularly in able phytochemical, which was then verified from
pharmaceutical industry. the available literature. TABLE 3 depicts the pos-
Studies have been shown the beneficial effects sible compound of unblanched leaf powder whereas
of fiber consumption in improving the gut health and TABLE 4 represents the compound in blanched leaf
protection against several ailments[25]. powder. The role of different class of identified com-
Chlorophyll is predominant chemical responsible pounds is complied with their possible beneficial
for imparting green colour to leaves. It masks caro- effects in TABLE 5. Thus the presence of various
tene in plant leaves[3] to exhibit yellow pigment. ß- compounds in the GCMS analysis Figure 3 are hexa-
carotene content found in fresh spinach leaves was decanoic acid, phytol (7,11,15-Tetramethyl-2-
4.498±0.084 mg/100g. Spinach contains hexadecen-1-ol), Campesterol (Ergost-5-en-3.beta.-
178.253±2.038 mg/100g of total chlorophyll. Higher ol), octadecanoic acid, n-eicosanol, alpha-toco-
levels of free radical quenching capacity (390.72mg/ pherol-beta-mannoside, stigmasterol, hexadecenal,
g) further makes fine spinach powder a nutritional vitamin E acetate, 1- pentadecyne, cis-9-
fraction to be used for the therapeutic purposes and hexadecenal, pentadecanoic acid, ß-sitosterol, oleic
thus the powder may be considered to be food func- acid, ethyl-4,5-dimethyl-phenol, linoleic acid
tional. (octadecatrienoic acid, methyl ester) and Beta.-
Phytochemical constituents sitosterol(Stigmast-5-en-3.beta.-ol)[26-31]. Presence of
these compounds possibly contributes their role in
Blanched powder was found to be more com- exhibiting different properties such as antibacterial
pact with higher moisture content as compared to activity, antioxidant property, nutraceutical value
the powder obtained from untreated leaves at re- with other important effects.
spective temperatures. The powder obtained from
the spinach leaves dehydrated at 70OC was subjected Optical characteristics
for the phytochemical evaluation came in the hexane The L, a, and b values used to represent colour
extracts through gas chromatography coupled with of the materials was found to be 30, -11 & 24; 37, -
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TABLE 3 : Possible phyto-chemicals in the hexane extract of unblanched spinach leaf powder
Peak RT(min) Area (%) Mo l wt. SI Molecular formula Name of the constituent
1 6.457 0.80 142 84 C6 H10N2 O2 Pyrro lidineacetamide
2 6.565 0.83 155 90 C 10H2 1N 3-Methyl-N-[(E)-3-methylbutylidene]-1-butanamine
3 8.094 1.08 116 79 C 6H12 O2 4-Vinyloxy-1-butanol
4 10.452 2.49 150 95 C 9H10 O2 2-Methoxy-4-vinylphenol
5 12.81 0.63 198 76 C 11H 18O3 3,3-Dimethyl-1,5-Dioxaspiro-Undecan-9-one
6 16.492 0.57 154 86 C11 H22 8-Methyl-1-decene
7 16.549 13.97 296 92 C 20H4 0O 3,7,11,15-Tetramethylhexadecen-2-en-1-ol
8 16.611 2.69 280 90 C20 H40 (2E)-3,7,11 ,15-Tetramethyl-2 -hexadecene
9 16.8 2.35 250 89 C18 H34 1-Octadecyne
10 16.996 3.85 278 88 C20 H38 1,4-Eico sadiene
11 17.408 0.61 270 92 C 17H 34O2 Hexadecanoic acid, methyl ester
12 19.084 0.65 294 89 C 19H 34O2 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid, methyl ester,,,
13 19.16 2.27 292 95 C 19H 32O2 Linolenic acid, methyl ester
14 19.271 21.44 296 97 C 20H4 0O Phytol
15 20.567 0.54 258 81 C1 6H22N 2O Cyclohex-2-enone,
3-(2-dimethylaminoethylamino)-5-pheny
16 20.721 1.83 157 84 C 8H1 5NO2 2-methyl-acrylic acid 2-dimethylamino -ethyl ester
17 20.855 0.70 198 77 C 13H2 6O 11-Tridecen-1-ol
18 22.17 0.77 508 85 C 34H 68O2 Heptadecano ic acid, heptadecyl ester
19 22.248 2.89 155 87 C 10H2 1N Benzedrex
20 22.32 0.86 530 66 C29 H62O 4Si2 Eicosanoic acid, 2,3-bis[(trimethylsilyl)oxy]propyl ester
21 22.417 5.68 294 93 C21 H42 10-Heneicosene
22 23.32 0.43 204 74 C 11H1 2N2O 2 Tryptophan
23 23.846 0.56 500 68 C27 H56O 4Si2 9-Octadecenoic acid
24 23.942 1.16 164 65 C 20H 36O2 9,12-Octadecadienoic acid (9z,12z)-, ethyl ester
25 24.165 11.89 298 95 C 20H4 2O 1-Eicosanol
26 26.152 0.45 268 83 C19 H40 No nadecane
27 26.255 7.70 452 94 C 31H6 4O N-hentriacontanol
28 29.016 0.63 270 80 C 18H3 8O 1-Octadecanol
29 30.106 1.62 472 76 C 31H 52O3 Vitamin E acetate
30 34.712 8.07 414 82 C 29H5 0O Beta.-sitosterol

12 & 32 and 40, -14 & 37, respectively for mix, ture[32]. The onset and peak temperatures were found
coarse and fine fractions of spinach powders. Fig- 42.53 and 53.15 0C and 75.75 and 75.91 0C, respec-
ure 1 clearly reflects brighter with intense green tinge tively with differential enthalpy (ÄH) as 2.278 and
reflected for fine fraction of spinach powder as com- 0.984 J/g Figure 4, which supports the associated
pared to other powder. changes happening during thermal treatments.
Thermal characteristics Fourier Transmission Infrared Spectroscopy
ifferential scanning colorimetric (DSC) charac- (FTIR)
terization describes thermal changes without alter- Infrared spectroscopy is the study of interactions
ing the mass of the sample as processing time pro- between biomaterial and electromagnetic fields in
ceeded, Starch gelatinization, protein denaturation the IR region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Mol-
or melting are the important phenomenon occurring ecules excite to the higher vibration state by absorb-
in various foods to provide unique texture and struc- ing infrared radiation and provide the fingerprint
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Figure 3 : Gas chromatograph of spinach powder

Figure 4 : DSC thermogram of fine spinach powder fraction

information for the chemical so as to get the infor- length.
mation regarding the functional groups depending of Fourier Transmission Infrared Spectroscopy is
the unique wave number, the reciprocal of wane the analytical technique, which monitors directly the
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TABLE 4 : Possible phyto-chemicals in the hexane extract of blanched spinach leaf powder

Peak RT(min) Area (%) Mol wt. SI Molecular formula Name of the constituent
1 7.087 2.92 126 79 C 5H6N 2O2 3-Diazo-2,4-Pentanedione
2 8.087 8.90 116 80 C 6H8 O4 3,5-Dihydroxy-6-methyl-2,3-dihydro-4H-p yran-4 -one
3 9.042 1.60 120 74 C8 H8O 2-Methylbenzaldehyde
4 9.385 1.09 126 7 C 6H10 N2O 3,4,4-Trimethyl-5-p yrazolone
5 10.453 2.44 150 96 C9H 10O2 2-Methoxy-4-vinylphenol
6 11.711 1.01 252 81 C 12H 26FO2P Phosphonofluoridic acid, propy-nonyl ester
7 12.43 9.98 243 82 C 9H1 3N3O 5 Beta-ribofuranoside, cytosine
8 13.682 1.66 180 74 C 11H1 6O2 3-Tert-Butyl-4-hydroxyanisole
9 16.554 11.61 362 89 C 26H 50 2-Hexadecyl-bicyclopentyl
10 16.616 1.90 182 87 C 13H 26 3,3,4-Trimethyl-1-d ecene
11 16.805 1.80 296 90 C20 H40O 3,7,11,15-Tetramethyl-2-hexadecen-1-ol
12 17.001 3.04 250 90 C 18H 34 1-Octadecyne
13 17.415 0.18 256 87 C 16H3 2O2 Pentadecanoic acid , meth yl ester
14 19.091 0.32 194 84 C 14H 26 7-Tetradecyne
15 19.167 0.65 292 88 C 19H3 2O2 9,12,15-Octadecatrienoic acid, methyl ester
16 19.272 8.79 296 96 C20 H40O Phytol
17 20.577 0.44 155 86 C10 H21N Benzedrex
18 20.725 0.27 132 82 C 5H1 2N2O 2 Carbamic acid, (2-dimethylamino_ethyl ester
19 22.255 1.33 292 81 C 19H3 2O2 9,12,15 Octadecatrienoic acid
20 22.424 1.33 288 83 C18 H37Cl 1-Chlorooctadecane
21 24.168 2.67 184 80 C 13H 28 3,8-Dimethylundecane
22 24.395 1.45 264 85 C18 H32O 9,12,15-Octadecatrien-1-ol, (Z,Z,Z)
23 25.572 1.08 410 90 C 30H 50 Squalene
24 25.836 0.29 280 84 C 20H 40 2-Methyl-7-nonadecene
25 26.168 3.21 478 95 C 34H 70 Tetratriacontane
26 26.266 3.66 322 93 C 23H 46 1-Tricosene
27 27.208 0.55 254 85 C1 1H20 Cl2O2 Dichloroacetic acid, nonyl ester
28 28.743 5.25 338 82 C23 H46O Diu nd ecyl ketone
29 29.037 2.24 298 89 C20 H42O 1-Eicosanol
30 30.134 5.50 472 89 C 31H5 2O3 Vitamin E acetate
31 32.675 2.22 400 83 C28 H48O Campesterol
32 34.767 10.62 94 81 C29 H50O Beta.-sitosterol

functional groups for characterizing the molecular CH3 aliphatic groups of fatty acids (1485-1425 cm-
structure[33]. Figure 5 shows the functional groups 1
), C=O, C-N stretching of amide I, N-H, C-O bend-
present in the spinach fine fraction and appearing in ing and C-C, C-N stretching of amide II, C=C (ring)
form of bands due to molecular vibrations. Regions stretching, C-C, C-O bending (1690-1485 cm-1), pro-
of stretching and bending includes (-C-O-CH2-) tein beta sheet (1639-1613 cm-1), C=O stretching of
stretching, (C-H) bending, and C-O, C=C (ring) carbonyl groups (ketone, esters and acids) (1800-
stretching, ring vibrations of carbohydrates in wave 1700 cm-1). Presence of various groups at particular
number range 1200-100 cm-1, tocopherol (1089- to the wave numbers is illustrated elsewhere[34-36].
1058 cm-1), symmetric -C-H bending of methyl group The spinach leaf powder in form of either mix,
(1400-1330 cm-1), C-C (ring) stretching and C-H course or fine fractions being rich in nutrients with
(ring) bending, stretching of -C-H of the CH2 and the available wide varieties of phytochemicals hav-
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TABLE 5 : Role of secondary metabolites in the body
Nature of Activity/Function
compound
Ester Anti-inflammatory, antio xidant, hypo cholesterolemic, anti-inflammatory, cancer preventive, hepato-protective
Terp ene Antimicrobial, anticancer, anti-inflammato ry, diuretic, antithrombotic
Anti cancerous, hepato protective, antimicrobial, antiasthma, diuretic, antioxidant, hypo cholesterolemic,
Steroid
anti androgenic, hemolytic

Figure 5 : FTIR spectra of fine spinach powder fraction

ing diverse functions make the developed biomate- Mr. Lokesh Kumar, the representative from Starcom
rial as unique one. This may find the application in Information Technology Limited, Bangalore for pro-
fortification of various food products, use as natural viding the key to use sigma plot software in the situ-
nutritional food color, pharmaceutical application and ation of rejection of proposal by the institute admin-
may be used as ready to use ingredient in cousins. istration to procure under professional development
allowance in order to finalize this work.
CONCLUSION
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