Based on the market report from Transparency Market Research, the estimate of global nutraceutical market in health is to reach $204.8 billion by 2017 growing at a CAGR of 7.3% amounting to $38.7 Billion by 2020. Recent trends and projections have shown the Asia-Pacific market to grow with the highest CAGR of which India represents 2% of 24% of Asia-Pacific nutraceutical market. One of the major driving forces for this is the increased health awareness and incidence of lifestyle disorders such as blood pressure and diabetes.

A diabetic is a progressive, non-communicable, serious chronic disease characterised by elevated blood glucose. As per the global report on diabetics by World Health Organisation (WHO), in 2012, 422 million adults were estimated to be diabetic with the majority of the people suffering from Type 2 diabetes.

Dr Margaret Chan Director-General (WHO) says, "that people with diabetes was once the predominance of the rich nations and is now showing a steady increase especially in the world's middle-income countries."

Elevated blood sugar in the system arises either due to the ineffective amount of insulin in the system or the inability of the pancreas to secrete insulin to regulate the blood sugar. Genetic predisposition along with the fast-paced lifestyle complemented by unhealthy dietary practices has led to this increased incidence. Apart from the administration of insulin, another parameter that can be exercised for controlling diabetes is to follow a strict and regulated diet with limited sugar intake.

A number of natural products possess functional properties to control sugar level and prevent diabetic conditions, one of them is Jamun.

Jamun (Syzygium cumini) is also known as Java plum and/or Portuguese plum and/or Malabar plum; the fruit changes its colour from green to pink to blood red to black as it matures. Jamun seeds have been used traditionally for the treatment of many diseases especially type II diabetes mellitus; there are many more reports indicating various phytochemicals within the fruit that provides health benefits.Research shows that glycoside Jamboline and alkaloid Jambosine have bioactive functionality as an anti-diabetic.

Based on the literature, another endogenous fruit, Kokum (Garcinia indica) is also a promising candidate with antioxidant and antibacterial benefits due to the active phytochemicals.

Our research team of foodies with health conscious concepts have tried to formulate a Anti-diabetic Nutraceutical tablet with Jambolan and Kokum using Stevia (Stevia rebaudiana) rebaudioside glycoside sweetener for balancing the taste buds. The powdered components of Jamun seed and kokum seeds were mixed the food grade preservative (Carboxymethylcellulose & citric acid) along with sweetener in proportions that are in accordance to RDI for each ingredient. Food grade blueberry colour was used as the colouring agent.

The entire mix was made into a tablet form weighing 1 gm each using pellet press machine. 100gm of the tablet was shown to contain

• 7.9g of carbohydrates (anthrone method),
• 11.17gm of proteins (Folin-Lowry's method),
• 1.4% fat (Soxhlet apparatus with petroleum ether),
• 320mg phenol (Folin-Ciocalteau),
• 110mg ascorbic acid (titration method with oxalic acid and indophenol dye),
• 8.58gms anthocyanins (differential pH method) and
• 10% crude fibre (acid and alkali assay).

Moisture content of tablet per 5gm was 10.8%.   The antidiabetic assay using alpha-amylase enzyme inhibition showed 3.87% inhibition per 2.5ug/ml sample. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing of the product using the Kirby-Bauer method showed significant inhibition of S.aureus and E.coli and the microbial load test showed 77 CFU/ml which is well under the permissible limit for food products.  An organoleptic survey with 30 people from different age and gender was carried out; overall 69% recommended it as good against the sensory parameters such as appearance (80%), colour (80%), smell (63%), touch (63%) and taste (60%). Based on the RDI formulations, an intake of four tablets per day for diabetes and blood pressure patients and 1-2 tablets for patients with gastric & ulcerative colitis problems may be suggested.