GABA DACHO: Dark chocolate enriched with gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and inulin as prebiotic

Authors

Wee Yin Koh¹ , Babak Rasti² , Xiao Xian Lim³ , Wan June Tan¹

1. Faculty of Food Science and Nutrition, Universiti Malaysia Sabah Jalan
2. Australasian Nanoscience and Nanotechnology Initiative, Monash University
3. Food Technology Division, School of Industrial Technology, Universiti Sains Malaysia

Conference / event

International Invention, Innovation & Technology Exhibition Malaysia (ITEX), May 2023 (Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia)

Poster summary

GABA, a functional compound in chocolate, has health benefits, such as reducing blood pressure in hypertensive patients, with a recommended daily intake of 10-20mg. However, roasting cocoa beans during chocolate production diminishes GABA content. Therefore, enriching chocolate with GABA is necessary to maintain high-quality standards. Inulin, a prebiotic that positively affects the growth of health-promoting gut bacteria, has been shown to prevent hypertension with a daily intake of 15g. Inulin can be incorporated into chocolate to provide the prebiotic benefits. By enriching our chocolate with both GABA and inulin, we offer a delicious treat with added health benefits.

Keywords

Amino acid, Functional food, Gamma-aminobutyric acid, Chocolate, Enrichment

Research areas

Agriculture

References

1. Murala, S.; Yelam, A.; Ismail, M.M.; Bollu, P.C. History of GABA. In Neurochemistry in Clinical Practice; Springer: Berlin/Heidelberg, Germany, 2022; pp. 73–89.
2. Chen, C.; Zhou, X.; He, J.; Xie, Z.; Xia, S.; Lu, G. The roles of GABA in ischemia-reperfusion injury in the central nervous system and peripheral organs. Oxid. Med. Cell. Longev. 2019, 2019, 1–19.
3. Ramos-Ruiz, R.; Poirot, E.; Flores-Mosquera, M. GABA, a non-protein amino acid ubiquitous in food matrices. Cogent Food Agric. 2018, 4, 1534323.
4. Sahab, N.R.; Subroto, E.; Balia, R.L.; Utama, G.L. γ-Aminobutyric acid found in fermented foods and beverages: Current trends. Heliyon 2020, 6, e05526.

Funding

1. Universiti Malaysia Sabah (No. SLB2228)

Supplemental files

1. Published full paper   Download
2. Poster   Download

Additional information

Competing interests

No competing interests were disclosed.

Data availability statement

The datasets generated during and / or analyzed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.

Creative Commons license

Copyright © 2023 Koh et al. This is an open access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.