International Journal of Food Science and Nutrition

Authors
Madhu Bala, Sanjay Mohan Gupta, Basant Ballabh, Jyoti Rawal, Om Prakash, Ankur Agarwal

Abstract
The Tinospora cordifolia (Thunb.) Miers, commonly known as “Giloe” plant; is reported to possess notable medicinal properties in the traditional systems of medicine. Usually the leaves and stems parts of this plant are being exploited by pharmaceutical industries for preparation of various herbal healthcare formulations. However, the fruits and seeds are still less-explored in terms of detailed phyto-constituents analysis due to rare fruiting of this plant. This research paper highlights the comparative nutritive phytochemical (primary and secondary metabolites, essential mineral content, dietary fibres, calorific value etc) analysis in different parts (leaves, stem, fruit and seed) of cultivated female plant of T. cordifolia. Our results suggest that T. cordifolia fruits and seeds are rich source of primary and secondary metabolites (protein, carbohydrate, reducing sugars, total phenol, tannins etc), antioxidants (Vitamin C, D etc), essential mineral content (Na, Fe, etc) and calorific energy (Kcal/100 gm) value as compared to leaves and stem parts of this plant. However, total dietary fibre content was found maximum in stem. Therefore, the ripened fruits can be best suited for commercial exploitation for the development of giloe based healthcare supplements.