IJSRP Feb 2012 Edition, Volume 2, Issue 2

Sports drinks are much relevant to the Indian sports scenario because of the fact that many of the Indian sports persons are undernourished and anaemic. Functional beverage was prepared by using whey water, pearl millet [Pennisetum typhoideum], cauliflower [Brassica oleracea var. botrytis] leaf powder, banana and jaggery at three different levels i.e. S1, S2 and S3. The developed functional beverage was organoleptically evaluated by a panel of judges and students by using nine-point hedonic scale. Both the panels gave the highest overall acceptability scores to the S1 level which was prepared by using 2.5 g cauliflower leaf powder, 5 g pearl millet, 10 g jaggery, 20 g banana and 63 ml whey water per 100 ml. The most acceptable level was chemically analyzed. Thirty sportswomen in the age group of 16 to 18 years were selected from Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana. The study was divided into two periods i.e. control and experimental. During control period the subjects were observed without supplementation for a month while during experimental period the subjects were supplemented with 200 ml of developed functional beverage for 3 months. The haematological profile, blood glucose and serum retinol level of the subjects were analyzed. Significant (p<0.01) improvement was seen in heamoglobin, packed cell volume and mean corpuscular volume after the experimental period i.e. 9.42, 3.35 and 2.08 %, respectively. Seventy seven percent subjects were anaemic before the study which was reduced to fifty percent after 3 months. Significant (p<0.01) improvement was also observed in blood glucose and serum retinol level i.e. 12.7 and 5.46 % in the subjects after the experimental period. Hence, it can be inferred from the results that supplementation of functional beverage before the sports training improved the blood profile of the sportswomen.