Acceptability of Ipil-Ipil (Leucaena glauca) Seeds as Purgative Extender to Polvoron: A Sensory Analysis

Abstract

INTRODUCTION

Millions of children worldwide are suffering from intestinal parasitic worms. In the Philippines, the government spends millions of budgets for purgative medicine to help school children eliminate their intestinal parasitic worms. However, several school children find its taste unpleasant. As result, most them refuse to take it. In this perspective, this study developed a purgative snack using Ipil-Ipil (Leucaena glauca) seeds (deworming agent) as a purgative extender to polvoron. Since there were few studies investigated the potential of herbal plants as purgative food extender, this study was conducted to evaluate the acceptability of Ipil-Ipil (Leucaena glauca) seeds as a purgative extender to polvoron.

METHODS

This study utilized the experimental research design using the parallel group design. A total of 24 pupil-respondents from Magroyong Elementary School who participated in the sensory evaluation. The scorecard of Rangana (1977) and hedonic scale were utilized as data gathering instruments. Data were subjected to statistical analysis such as mean and one-way ANOVA.

RESULTS

Results revealed that the level of acceptability of the sensory attributes of Ipil-Ipil seed polvoron is high with an average weighted mean of 9.81. The data further showed that there is a significant difference between the experimental and the commercial product in terms of the sensory attributes, except for odor and appearance.

DISCUSSIONS

The results implied that the Ipil-Ipil seed polvoron was acceptable to the senses of the respondents. It further showed that there is a significant difference in the texture, taste, and general acceptability of the product which implies that it can level to the sensory characteristics of a commercial polvoron. However, the odor and appearance of the developed product have no significant difference with the commercial one. This implies that there is a need to enhance the odor and appearance of the developed product to make it more competitive to the commercial polvoron.