Optimized Formulation of a Chewable Candy Containing Loquat Flower Tea

  Objective  Formulation of a chewable candy containing loquat flower tea for cough relief and phlegm reduction was optimized.

  Method   Formulation on loquat flower tea, xylitol, citrate acid, and gelatin for the candy product was tested in a single factor experiment using hardness measurement and sensory multiple-scoring as the evaluation criteria. It was optimized using a response surface method with 3 factors and 3 levels.

  Result   The sensory evaluation suggested the appropriate gelatin addition to be 12%, and the response surface experiment optimized the formula to include 17.7 g·L⁻¹ loquat flower tea, 13.85% xylitol, and 1.25% citrate acid. A sensory score of 91.23 agreeing with the predicted value by the model was obtained on the finished product.

  Conclusion  The finalized formulation for the chewable candy consisted of 29.85% of loquat flower tea (i.e., a concentration at 17.7g·L⁻¹), 28.4% of maltose syrup, 13.85% of xylitol, 14.55% of sugar, 1.25% of citrate acid, 12% of gelatin, and 0.1% of glyceryl monostearate.