Development of herbal tea to manage gastritis and evaluation of acid neutralizing capacity

Abstract

Gastritis is one of the most prevalent medical conditions among the world population. Developing herbal tea, the most popular beverage in Sri Lanka, is an interesting treatment for this condition. This study was conducted to assess in vitro acid neutralizing capacity of herbal tea developed from dried leaves of Aegle marmelos, Desmodium triflorum and Centella asiatica and to assess the influence of infusion time and temperature on the acid neutralizing capacity. Herbal tea bags (T1-T11) were prepared by incorporating different ratios of powdered dried leaves. Each tea bag was infused at a constant infusion temperature of 1000C for 3, 5 and 7 minutes, respectively and the in vitro acid neutralizing capacity was evaluated using Fordtran’s method. Infusions which showed the best capacity were evaluated for the effect of temperature by applying different temperatures: 100, 80, 60 0C at a constant time. The duration of consistent neutralization on artificial gastric acid was evaluated using the modified model of Vatier’s artificial stomach for the selected infusions. The results were compared with green tea and distilled water. The results were analyzed by using one-way ANOVA. All the brew samples infused at 100 ̊ C temperature for 5 minutes expressed a significant acid neutralizing capacity (P≤0.05). The highest acid neutralizing capacity was observed for the T9 (27.10 ± 0.00 mL) and T7 (24.70 ± 0.00 mL) following 5.43 ± 0.05 and 0.73 ± 0.05 mL for green tea and distilled water, respectively. Further, the T9 showed the highest duration of consistent neutralization on artificial gastric acid of, 382.33±2.00 s, green tea and distilled water consumed only 42.00 ± 1.00 and 72 ± 1.00 s. It could be concluded that the T9 containing only A. marmelos has more acid neutralizing capacity with a higher duration of consistent neutralization on gastric acid than the other plant combinations, which can be due to various interactions. Infusions at 1000C temperature for 5 minutes were the best parameters to get the maximum activity to manage the gastritis.