Development of Functional Yogurts Prepared with Mulberries and Mulberry Tree Leaves

In order to develop new functional yogurts using mulberries and mulberry leaves, which were cultivated in Hwasun-gun, Jeonnam Province, Korea, the nutritional compositions, fermentation conditions, sensory properties, and storage stabilities of the yogurts were analyzed. The mulberry powder yogurt contained 87.96% moisture, 3.21% carbohydrate, 4.52% protein, 3.63% lipid, and 0.68% ash, and the mulberry leaf yogurt contained 86.36% moisture, 4.13% carbohydrate, 4.87% protein, 3.79% lipid, and 0.85% ash. A yogurt base was fermented for 13 h with 0.01% ABT-5 starter inoculum at 40oC. To prepare the mulberry jam and mulberry leaf yogurts, a variety of mulberry jam and mulberry leaf samples were added to the yogurt base. The sensory evaluation results of the yogurts containing the mulberry jam and mulberry leaves indicated that a product made with 15% mulberry jam was more strongly preferred than other samples. When the mulberry jam and mulberry leaf yogurts were stored at 4oC for 15 d, there were no significant changes in pH, titratable acidity, or viable cell numbers of lactic acid bacteria and Bifidobacterium bifidum.