Researcher of IPB: Cat Whiskers Drink was Suitable for Diabetes Patient

The tradition of consuming the medicinal plants or spices in the form of the traditional herbs had been well known and widely practiced by the community. The goal was for the maintenance of the health and the physical fitness, the disease prevention, the treatment, and the health restoration. But unfortunately, not all people loved the traditional herbal medicine, because the taste was identical with the sharp aroma and the bitter taste, thereby lowering the value of the palatability of the drink.

One of the diseases suffered by the community of Indonesia was the disease of diabetes mellitus (DM). In Indonesia, the number of DM patients occupied the fourth largest position in the world after India, China and the United States of America. Basic Health Research Results (Riskesdas) showed that the proportion of the cause of death was due to in the age group 45-54 years. The efforts were needed to maintain the community health, to prevent the occurence of DM disease, and to contribute in the prevention of the disease. The traditional herbs had the potential to be developed into a concoction that not only had a positive impact on the body fitness as well as having a taste that could be liked by the consumers. One of the medicinal plants that had the potential to be developed as a functional herb raw material in the form of the beverages was the cat whiskers. The cat whiskers plants were known to have the potential of the diverse active physiological abilities and flavors that easily combined with other ingredients. This was that was underlying the Researcher of Department of Food Science and Technology, Faculty of Agricultural Technology, Bogor Agricultural University, (Fateta IPB), Prof.Dr. C. Hanny Wijaya, M.Agr. to do the development of the functional herb products based on the cat whiskers.

Prof. Hanny Wijaya said, the cat whiskers plant was the herb that had long been known to be effacacious for the health as the diuretic. High antioxidant properties were also obtained from this plant. However, the problem of taste was still a constraint on almost all “herbal” drinks. The use of some herbs and spices plants apparently was able to provide the health benefits better than the use of the single cat whiskers. The taste, color, and aroma of the “herbal” drinks produced were better. “This drink is made from the mixture of some spices and herbs plants which are the leaves of the cat whiskers (60 percent), the sappan wood, the ginger, the temulawak, the lime, the jeruk purut, and the lemon. This drink has advantages such as the high antioxidant content, the anti-diabetes, and the peluruh of kidney stone,” said Prof. Hanny.

The products developed since 2007 had earned several awards among them:  101 innovations in BIC Kemenristek 2009 and Roosseno Award in collaboration with Dewan Rempah Indonesia / Indonesian Spice Board in the Awarding Program to Indonesian Spice Researchers 2013.(AT/ris)