Making the Most of Herbal and Botanical Ingredients

Making the Most of Herbal
and Botanical Ingredients
March 2000 -- Applications

By: Lynn A. Kuntz
Editor

  New food and beverage products with an herbal or botanical twist are sprouting up like weeds. A big reason for this influx, says Michael Petteruti, executive vice president, technology, sales and marketing, A.M. Todd Botanicals (formerly Folexco/East Earth Herb), Montgomeryville, PA, is that consumers are viewing these products as "self-regulated, preventative health care and good nutrition. What's more attractive is having both of those benefits tied up into a delivery system that tastes good."

Garden of delights

  Consumers find many reasons to purchase herbal and botanical products. History, anecdotal evidence and, thankfully, a growing number of scientific studies have conferred a wide range of benefits that go beyond basic nutrition to the ingestion of many plants. "Many people don't view these as medicine, but as ingredients that can make them feel better and prevent illness," says Petteruti. "In fact, it's similar to how vitamins are currently viewed."

  Sports enthusiasts believe certain herbs can enhance performance. A report entitled "Selected Herbals and Exercise Performance" by Luke R. Bucci, Ph.D., author of several books on sports nutrition, from a National Institutes of Health workshop called "The Role of Dietary Supplements for Physically Active People" cautions: "Difficulties with belief systems, taxonomic classification, identification and consistency of herbal components, dose-response, accessibility of foreign research, and lack of funding have prevented more than cursory research on single herbs or combinations." However, he notes that purified substances from herbal sources such as caffeine or ephedrine have been shown to enhance certain aspects of exercise performance. This has resulted in the traditional use of herbs, such as ginseng (Panox ssp. and Eleutherococcus senticosus), schizandra (Schizandra chinensis, a Chinese berry), Panox pseudoginseng, and astragalus root (Astragalus membranaceus), as tonics or for enhanced physical performance.

  Other herbs are prized for their antioxidant content. These include: green tea (Camellia sinensis), with its polyphenol catechins and gallate esters; milk thistle seed (Silybum marianum), with its silymarins; ginkgo (Ginkgo biloba), with its ginkgolides; turmeric (Curcuma longa root), with curcumin; red wine, grape seeds, bilberries, blueberries and cranberries, with their anthocyanins; the herbs rosemary, sage and thyme; and citrus fruit bioflavonoids.

  Some herbs are used to promote relaxation. St. John's wort (Hypericum perforatum), lavender (Lavandula angustifolia), valerian (Valeriana officinalis), jasmine (Jasminum sambac or odoratissimum), hops (Humulus lupulus), and kava kava (Piper methysticum) are common ingredients added to teas and supplements sold for this reason.

  Still others are used as a pick-me-up. Tea (Camellia sinensis), in black, oolong or green forms, is widely consumed, especially as a lower-caffeine alternative to coffee. However, caffeine level in tea depends on a number of factors, including the variety, its origin, the location on the plant, particle size, and the technique and time used for steeping. Yerba maté (Ilix paraguanensis), kola nut (Cola acuminata), and guarana (Paullinia cupana) can also add the caffeine-alertness factor to products. Dried yerba maté contains about 10 to 15 mg caffeine per gram, while kola has about 10 mg per gram and dried guarana 25 mg per gram. Like tea, yerba maté contains a significant level of tannins, giving it an astringent taste. Guarana, whose seeds are roasted before use, is fairly odorless, but tastes astringent and has a bitterness like chocolate's. Also like chocolate, guarana contains theobromine and theophylline.

  Others herbs are said to be good for digestion or to soothe an upset stomach, including star anise (Illicium verum), anise seed (Pimpinella anisum), cloves (Syzygium aromaticum), peppermint (Mentha piperita), ginger (Zingiber officinale), angelica (Angelica archangelica), cinnamon/cassia (Cinnamomum cassia), and fennel (Foeniculum vulagre).

  Calendula, or pot marigold, (Calendula officinalis), eucalyptus (Eucalyptus globulus), echinacea, or purple coneflower (Echinacea purpurea and E. augustifolia), acerola (Malpighia glabra) and rose hips (Rosa canina) might be formulated into a product aimed at cold or flu sufferers.

  Certain herb and botanical ingredients can be used to impart a pleasant flavor to products. Some of these are generally thought of as spices, such as cinnamon and rosemary, or as flavoring agents, such as peppermint or licorice, but still can exhibit a functional effect.

  Other herbs, such as saw palmetto, which is used for men's prostate health, fall more into the category of "pharmaherbs," says Donald Wilkes, president, Blue Pacific Flavor and Fragrances, City of Industry, CA. "These have been historically marketed through the dietary supplement category to treat a particular condition. A lot of herbs fall into that category, but that doesn't mean they can't cross over. Look at echinacea, for example."

Tasty protectors

  Not all herb products are used for physiological or psychological benefits. Sometimes herbs and plant-derived spices are used in food simply to improve taste and pique consumer interest. And sometimes they can also benefit the product.

  Highly spiced foods, spice rubs and marinades seem to be increasing in popularity. A dry rub, a combination of herbs and spices applied to a food's surface and massaged in prior to cooking, doesn't just make meat taste better, however. It also provides the meat with a savory crust, and helps seal in juices without added fat.

  Good-tasting herbs also contribute other beneficial product effects. Spices have been used as preservation agents, especially for meat products, for many centuries. They can act in two ways - as antioxidants and as antimicrobials. A study at Kansas State University, Manhattan, by Daniel Fung, Ph.D. and associates shows that cinnamon, cloves and garlic can all reduce E. coli 0157:H7 in meat. The researchers tested the three spices in ground beef and fermented sausages. While the levels used to gain significant reductions were - to put it mildly - rather high (for example, the level of cloves in ground beef found to kill 90% of the bacteria was a whopping 2.5%), these tests illustrate some natural ways to lower bacterial counts.

  Another series of tests performed at the University of Western Australia, Nedlands, and published in the June 1999 Journal of Applied Microbiology, showed that plant oils and extracts suppress the growth of a wide range of microorganisms. Lemongrass, bay and oregano inhibited a series of bacteria, including E. coli, Salmonella and Staphylococcus, at levels of 2.0% or less, and thyme oil was effective against E. coli at lower concentrations (0.03%).

  Herbal antimicrobials might also be effective against mold and the subsequent contamination of foods with mycotoxins. An Argentinean study published in the October 1999 Letters in Applied Microbiology reports that oregano and mint, and to a lesser degree, basil, inhibit the growth of Aspergillus mold.

  These and similar studies might provide opportunities to develop herb-based extracts that exhibit more antimicrobial action than a straight culinary version. At the minimum, they can be combined with other forms of microbial control to minimize microbial risks.

  Herbs, and many fruit-based ingredients, can also possess some potent antioxidant qualities. Commercial rosemary extracts that retard fat oxidation have been on the market for several years. Other herbs might also help in this regard. For example, oregano extracts have been found to contain a tocopherol content ranging from 288 ppm to 672 ppm (depending on variety), according to a Greek study published in the November 1996 International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition.

Growing on the shelf

  The herbal market, which was formerly limited to smaller companies, seems to be widening. For example, Kraft has purchased the company that makes Balance bars; H.J. Heinz & Co. has teamed with Hain Foods (remember those herb-fortified soups, Kitchen Prescriptions?); and Quaker Oats Company has announced a partnership with Novartis AG to sell as of yet unspecified functional foods in North America.

  "There's still some hesitancy on the part of large, mainstream food companies because of the open questions regarding the efficacy, the safety and the lack of substantiation that they're doing something tangible for the consumer, something that can be measured," says Petteruti. "They don't want any conflicts with the FDA. But if a company doesn't want to hazard their own brand through direct association, they can buy a company that is already involved in the business." Many companies want to get involved in the market, he says, but they don't want to use anything too extreme. "So they'll start out with ingredients that are recognizable. You might want to do a sage, a rosemary, a chamomile, a ginger or an angelica extract. They're all herbal extracts, they're all relatively popular with a positive connotation or association, and best of all, they're all GRAS." He notes that it's the smaller, more cutting-edge companies that are the first to try some of the ingredients that we might be unaccustomed to seeing in foods.

Designing herbal delights

  Some of the biggest problems with working with herbs revolve around their effect on the organoleptic qualities of the finished product. One of the most challenging tasks is creating an acceptable flavor, because many of these ingredients possess a strong, often unpleasant, flavor, frequently related to the active ingredient. Formerly, people tended to believe that if a plant or a tea smelled or tasted bad, it had to be good for you.

  "You will run across products in health food stores that taste really bad," Wilkes says. Certain ingredients do possess notoriously bad flavors. These include some of today's more popular "medicinal" herbs such as milk thistle, saw palmetto and echinacea.

  Product designers can look at several options, singly or in combination, to end up with a palatable flavor. "Originally most of these product just used the herbals for a 'marketing flair' and they would only add the highest amount that a flavor could mask," Petteruti says. "Now manufacturers say, 'I want to deliver a certain mg per serving. As you move up, the challenge becomes that much greater. If it's kava, someone might ask, 'can I deliver 500 mg of kava with 30% kavalactones in a beverage?' Well if you do, you're probably going to have a challenge for that repeat sale."

  Flavor strategies include carefully adjusting the level, choosing a complementary base and flavor system, blending with customized flavor systems that account for some of the existing flavor notes to mimic another flavor, and/or using masking flavors.

  Herbs can act as a building block that contributes to the final flavor. "A flavorist can identify a particular constituent or profile and can use a bitter character to make perhaps a cranberry-orange flavor profile," says Wilkes. "You could make a blend of herbs with a flavor range that would blend well with the flavor."

  The actual application can lend itself to certain ingredients. Highly spiced products such as rice and pasta dishes, batters and breadings, infused oils, or savory snacks might hide a multitude of off-flavor sins. "From my perspective, it's a heck of a lot easier to flavor some of these things with a savory base than a sweet or fruit-based product," says Petteruti. "Many of the standardized extractions use a solvent that extracts the less polar constituents, so in many cases the ingredients actually lend themselves to use in an oil-based system." Ginger, fenugreek (a maple-flavored herb) and licorice might also be compatible with savory applications.

  An herb could be matched with a complementary flavor. Berry extracts and rose hips are a given in applications that historically have a tart, fruity flavor. Combining dairy products or soy beverages with ginseng or angelica (dong quai) makes tasty pairings, according to Petteruti. Chamomile, damiana (Turnera diffusa) and jasmine can impart floral notes for sweet applications. Red clover, if extracted properly, can deliver floral notes also, but most people extract for the isoflavones.

  Another technique to maintain efficacy without overdosing on flavor is using a purified compound. For example, Blue Pacific has just commercialized a process to manufacture green tea and cocoa polyphenols. A product designer looking for high polyphenol content without waiting for the U.S. consumer to grow accustomed to green-tea flavor might merely add these ingredients, since their polyphenol content can range as high as 95%.

  The flavor can vary depending on the source and/or variety of the herb or botanical used. Ginger is a good example, says Wilkes: "African ginger and Cochin (Indian) ginger are two different varietals. Cochin has a highly aromatic flavor, almost curry-like, where the African has a smoother profile readily identified as the kind of flavor you'll find in ginger ale." Ginger contains gingerol, a compound that gives the characteristic aroma of ginger.

Standards and stability

  The flavor isn't the only thing that varies depending on which plant is used - so does the level of active compound in the plant. The type of processing, both the extraction of the herb or botanical as well as the processing of the final product, such as pasteurization or other heat processes, can also affect the active ingredients in the end product.

  "A number of studies indicate that hypericin is responsible for the therapeutic benefit of St. John's wort," says Kara Dinda, educational director at the American Botanical Council, Austin, TX. "They weren't really certain prior to that, although it was used as the marker compound." Identifying and quantifying these substances is one of the industry's biggest challenges, but one that it's actively addressing. (For more information see "Picking Botanical and Herbal Ingredients" in the June 1999 issue of Food Product Design.) "When we use the term standardization, we use the term broadly to mean what the industry has accepted as marker compounds; knowing whether they're right or wrong is sometimes difficult," explains Petteruti.

  There's also an ongoing debate within the industry on what form can best deliver the expected benefits. "Raw herb equivalents can have some value as opposed to just using the standardized form," notes Petteruti. "We have one customer who equates their product to cups of tea; that it would be equivalent to consuming x cups of tea. That's an interesting approach because making decoctions and teas is how many of these products were and are traditionally consumed."

  Most commercial ingredients take the form of an extraction, which increases product uniformity, but often leaves out certain compounds or causes them to change by promoting chemical reactions. The process can run the gamut from relatively mild pressing or cold-water extraction to heavy-duty solvent, high-heat and high-pressure methods. "We use a process called optimized differential extraction that uses a series of different extractions to allow us to draw out a desired range of components from the botanical," says Petteruti. "It allows us to create a more comprehensive botanical extract, or, as we term it, 'PhytoSpectrum.' There are still things that might get left out, but we've tried to extract in a way that pulls out as much as possible."

  Once the processor incorporates herbal products, the next thing is to look at process and storage conditions that have the potential to affect these compounds. For example, anthocyanins are subject to oxidation. Luckily, many of these compounds are heat-stable. Many botanical essential-oil volatiles can be adversely affected by high-heat processing. "The processes that extracts go through are usually quite harsh," Petteruti points out. "Interestingly, a huge majority of the compounds are relatively stable when subjected to those kinds of processes."

Safety first

  Some consumers mistakenly believe that if a product contains a natural ingredient, such as a botanical or herb, it must be safe, but this is far from the truth. The FDA considers many of the botanicals and herbs on the market GRAS (if they were used in a food prior to 1958). However, many of today's herbal products are considered dietary supplements and fall under theDSHEA rules, leaving the field - in the opinion of many - wide open, which means a designer should choose wisely to avoid any potential harmful side effects.

  DSHEA broadens the definition of a supplement to include vitamins, minerals, herbs, botanicals and other plant-derived substances. Manufacturers are obligated to put safe products on the market, but the FDA has to show that a dietary supplement is unsafe before it can restrict its use. In order to market an ingredient not marketed in the United States before 1994, a company can either submit information to the FDA that supports that a new ingredient can reasonably be expected to be safe (does not present a significant or unreasonable risk of illness or injury under conditions of use recommended in the product's labeling); or petition the FDA to establish the conditions under which the new ingredient would be expected to be safe.

  Under DSHEA, dietary supplements may bear "structure/function" claims (claims that the products affect the structure or function of the body) without prior FDA review. They may not, without prior FDA review, bear a claim that they can prevent, treat, cure, mitigate or diagnose disease (a disease claim). The rule permits claims that do not relate to disease. These include health-maintenance claims ("maintains a healthy circulatory system"), other non-disease claims ("for muscle enhancement," "helps you relax,"), and claims for common, minor symptoms associated with life stages ("for common symptoms of PMS," "for hot flashes"). The rule was published in the January 6, 2000 Federal Register and became effective 30 days after the date of publication.

  However, because critics have claimed that the effects of many herbal ingredients that fall under DSHEA are untested for safety, the government is reevaluating this position as it pertains to pregnancy. "The agency has received a number of concerns about the use of dietary supplements by pregnant women," says Peggy Dotzel, the FDA's acting associate commissioner for policy. "We think that the safety issues surrounding this should be further explored." So, as of February of this year, the FDA has advised manufacturers to avoid product claims for pregnancy-related conditions.

  Indiscriminate consumption of herbs may have unexpected and unpleasant effects - some can be toxic, and others might interact with drugs or worsen an existing condition. "Certain herbs can be downright dangerous if taken without concern for pre-existing health conditions and prescription drug treatments," says Wilkes.

  Comfrey and chaparral are reported to cause liver and/or kidney damage. Chaparral is an herbal preparation made from the leaves of the creosote bush (Larrea tridentata), which has been used in traditional American Indian medicine and has been recommended in non-scientific publications as an antioxidant. It was removed from the FDA's GRAS list in 1970. Sassafras contains safrole, a known carcinogen now banned in foods. Wormwood can have neurological effects. Aloe latex (not juice), cassia and rhubarb root act as laxatives and, if consumed in excess, can disrupt the body's electrolyte balance. Even excessive consumption of a common botanical such as licorice isn't free of effect - high levels can elevate blood pressure. And since many of these ingredients generate physiological effects, they might interact with medications. For example, garlic and ginkgo biloba can thin the blood, which can be hazardous for people taking prescription medicines for the same effect. Echinacea is only recommended for use for about ten days. Because it apparently stimulates the immune system, people with an autoimmune disease such as rheumatoid arthritis should avoid it. The difference between food and "poison" often depends on levels consumed; nutmeg is harmless in small quantities, but deadly in large doses.

  Another ingredient to steer clear of is ma huang. This Chinese herb, also called ephedra, Mormon tea or Brigham tea, contains ephedrine. The FDA has reported hundreds of cases of adverse reaction to ephedrine and dozens of deaths have been linked to supplements containing this ingredient.

  Deciding which herbs, what forms and at what levels will be an ongoing challenge for product designers. While GRAS and safe for consumption at practical levels, the science that establishes direct health benefits at specific levels still has a way to go for many of these products. "There are still many issues related to efficacy and that's still a big question mark," says Wilkes. "So there are a lot of companies that might say 'we have echinacea in a product,' but they're not ready to tackle efficacy issues or RDA-type issues unless they're really positioning a product to that health market. There are some products out there, beverages in particular, that are trying to establish a certain level that reflects efficacy, but are still below levels of concern for any potential adverse effects."

  "Many foods and beverages do not contain therapeutic doses, nor will they be ingested in the same amounts as the therapeutic doses that provide benefits according to clinical trials, or even traditional medicinal use," says Dinda. "The addition of some of these herbal products, in minute doses or doses that are below therapeutic levels, still might be somewhat beneficial because of the phytochemicals they do contain, such as antioxidants. The question is, if you are trying to formulate on a therapeutic basis, the level is dependent on the herb, and also what it is combined with." Another point to consider is the target for the product. "Some of these herbs might have multiple uses, and that could influence the amount required," she adds.

  Add to this tangle the typical product development issues, including color and flavor contributions, solubility and particle size, and you end up with a complex web of issues to address. While formulating with herb and botanical ingredients might not yet be a walk in the park, there are lessons to be learned from other ingredients. For example, many of the challenges of flavor and nutritional optimization have already been examined in vitamin fortification. Science is poised to answer some of the questions about efficacy and activity. Also, suppliers with experience in the herb and botanical areas can offer their expertise to those who wish to design these products. "It helps to align ourselves with our customers," says Petteruti, "so that we're working on projects together - they're not just requesting ingredients." With help from the experts, using herbals and botanicals, especially in more conventional foods, appears to be a growing opportunity.

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