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Exploring Sea Buckthorn and agar RA in Functional Jelly

Sea buckthorn (Hippophae rhamnoides) is a plant known for its rich nutritional value and medicinal benefits. It is packed with bioactive compounds such as vitamins, carotenoids, polyphenols, fatty acids (among other plants, contains the higher percentage of omega-7), and phytosterols, which makes it has wide range of health benefits, including antioxidant, anticancer, anti-hyperlipidemic, anti-obesity, anti-inflammatory, antimicrobial, antiviral, dermatological, neuroprotective, and hepatoprotective effects (1, 2).

Flavor-wise, sea buckthorn is known for its very sour and tangy. Due to its strong taste, it is rarely consumed raw and is more commonly used in juices, jams, syrups, and dietary supplements.

At Java Biocolloid, our R&D team has explored the functional combination of native agar type agar RA® with sea buckthorn juice extract to create innovative and functional jelly products, that prevents the separation of the high fatty acid (omega-7) from the system. Two types of recipes were developed: a gummy jelly with high brix and a water-based gel with low Brix.

• In the gummy jelly formulation, a combination of 0.66% agar RA and 4.3% sea buckthorn extract resulted in a product with a chewy texture, good structure, and easy molding properties.
• For the water-based gel, we used 1% agar with a high sea buckthorn concentration of 61.5%. The result was a slightly gummy texture, well-structured gel, easily unmolded, and showing minimal syneresis.

To balance the tartness and enhance flavor, combinations with milder fruits like apple can be considered, offering a more approachable taste profile while maintaining the functional value.

This innovation demonstrates the potential of combining sea buckthorn’s health benefits with Java Biocolloid’s high-quality agar to create appealing, functional food products.

1https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2949866X23001296
2https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9763470/

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