Author(s): Tapasya Anand and Sparsh Sumnirom Subba

Abstract: Ergogenic aids enable an athlete to adapt to their specific sport training and improve the effectiveness of exercise, and boost recovery from exercise. Heavy and sustained intensity exercises are known to increase pro-inflammatory markers causing decreased performance and recovery in an athlete. From the scientific literature survey we also observed that dietary intake of female athletes is inadequate and many of them suffer macro and mineral deficiencies. Supplements may be necessary to fill any nutritional gaps and therefore the present study was targeted towards developing a cost-effective plant-based ergogenic aid for women athletes. Plant based sources high in essential amino acids and bioactive components having performance enhancing, antioxidant, immune enhancing, pain relieving, and fatigue reducing properties are potential candidates that can be explored for optimizing the performance of athletes. In the present study, we standardized and formulated a performance enhancing plant-based instant mix. The most acceptable variant was evaluated for its chemical composition and in vitro antioxidant and anti-inflammatory potential. The developed mix showed comparable levels of crude protein (28±0 gm/100g), carbohydrate (56±0.03 gm/100 gm) and calcium (32±0.07 mg/100g) with commercial protein mix. Significantly higher levels were observed for phytochemicals (mg/100g) viz., polyphenols (597±31.8) and flavonoids (226±0.05). The methanolic extract of the instant mix also exhibited significant (p<0.005) scavenging action of DPPH radicals (84.13±0.02), FRAP (3.39±0.02), reducing power (0.89±0.01), anti-hyaluronidase activity (39.4±0.02) and anti-protease activity (93.68±0.13) at 20µg/ml concentration, making them great supplements for muscle building, muscle maintenance and thereby optimal performance as exactly required by athletes.

DOI: 10.33545/27077012.2024.v5.i2a.261

Pages: 11-16 | Views: 413 | Downloads: 141

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