Impact of Glycemic Index and Antioxidant Activity on Human Health of Barnyard Millet-based Designer Vermicelli

Background: A nutrient-rich staple food throughout Asia and Africa, millet is a hardy and drought-resistant crop. Antioxidant-rich bioactive compounds can be found in abundance in millet. Consuming functional ingredients rich in antioxidants through diet is necessary to enhance human health. In this study, four beneficial ingredients (fenugreek seeds, garden cress seeds, Brahmi leaves and Ekanayakam root bark) were added to barnyard millet which contains several bioactive principles that were utilised to prepare designer vermicelli. Methods: The present study is to formulate the designer vermicelli with a combination of barnyard millet at 40 per cent, functional ingredients of fenugreek seed flour, garden cress seed flour, ekanayakam root bark at 2 per cent and brahmi leave powder at 0.5 per cent. This study aims to determine the antioxidant activity and glycaemic index for the developed barnyard millet vermicelli incorporated with the functional ingredient. Result: The antioxidant activity measured using DPPH scavenging activity shows that the barnyard millet vermicelli has a high antioxidant activity of 23.28 to 27.18 per cent initially which decreased to 22.94 to 26.74 per cent during the fourth month of storage. The glycemic index of the designer vermicelli varied from 48.25 to 57.91 which was lower than in the control (74.89).