PERTANIKA JOURNAL OF TROPICAL AGRICULTURAL SCIENCE

Nypa fruticans sap (NFS) or neera juice is a sugar-rich palm sap beverage widely consumed among the Malay community in Malaysia. The processed NFS has long been used as a traditional medicine to treat diabetes. Being a natural sweetener, NFS could potentially be used as a novel source to replace added sugar in bakery product. This study aimed to determine the effects of nutritional, textural, antioxidant properties and acceptability of carrot cake formulated with concentrated NFS as partial replacement (0, 5, 10, 15 and 20%) for table sugar. Results indicated that incorporation of concentrated NFS at 20% level significantly (p<0.05) increased the nutritional compositions of carrot cakes which recorded a higher moisture (33.31%), ash (1.47%) and dietary fiber (10.75%) content as compared with control carrot cake. In texture profile analysis, a slight decrease in hardness, springiness, chewiness and resilience were reported with increasing levels of concentrated NFS formulated in the cake. For antioxidative activities, methanolic extract of 20% concentrated NFS-incorporated carrot cake showed the highest total phenolic content (TPC) among other treatments but did not significantly differ (p>0.05) with TPC of 15% NFS-incorporated cake. A significantly higher (p<0.05) free radical scavenging effects on the 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) and reducing power (RP) were also observed in methanolic extract of 20 % NFS carrot cake compared to control cake without NFS substitution. Sensory acceptability test revealed that carrot cake formulated with 20% concentrated NFS, though not significant (p>0.05) compared with other treatments (0 to 15%), received the highest scores for colour, texture, appearance and overall acceptability. Overall, the present study suggested that incorporation of concentrated NFS up to 20% in carrot cake to replace sugar could be an effective way to develop nutritious carrot cake with desirable physical and sensorial acceptability.