Herbal Fortification of Bread with Fennel Seeds

Fennel seeds are a source of many nutrients, i.e. sugars, minerals, essential fatty acids, vital vitamins, protein and fibre. They are also rich in essential oil and many flavonoids. The sweet-flavoured fennel seeds are very popular worldwide and are extensively used in culinary and therapeutic fields. Bread fortified with fennel seed powder is thus likely to have higher consumer acceptability than white or other fortified bread. In this study, bread samples were prepared by supplementing white flour with fennel seed powder at the levels of 3.0, 5.0, 7.0, 10.0 and 15.0 % and their physical, sensory, antioxidant and staling characteristics were determined. Crumb moisture increased and reached the maximum at 7.0 % level of supplementation with gradual increase in crumb firmness. An attempt has been made to understand the role of fennel seed powder in the bread samples during storage. Antioxidant activity (i.e. total phenolic content, ferric reducing antioxidant power and 2,2-diphenyl-1-picrylhydrazyl radical scavenging) showed an increase up to 7.0 % level of supplementation. Bread with fennel seed content between 5.0 and 7.0 % showed the highest acceptability among the fortified bread samples.