Sensory evaluation of different infusions from aromatic herbs

Abstract

Both in the past and in the present humans have been surrounded and dependent on medicinal herbs. They gradually gained a deeper insight into them, primarily for the purpose of use in traditional medicine and subsequently also in order to use in everyday diet. All the parts of the plant that contain active substances (e.g. fruit, flower, leaf, stem, root, tuber, etc.) are used in the processing of aromatic plants. Tea can be prepared as an infusion, decoction, extraction through cooking and maceration. Most teas are prepared as an infusion. The general part of the paper provides a description of biological and chemical characteristics of aromatic plants whose infusion had been used for sensory evaluation, such as: lavender, linden, chamomile, peppermint (mint), fennel, sage and thyme. In the practical segment of the paper, the method of consumer sensory evaluation was used to evaluate the infusions made from the previously mentioned species of aromatic plants (20 grams monodose) produced by the company Franck L.t.d. Zagreb, which was simultaneously also the objective of this paper. Sensory evaluation was conducted during the second half of 2018 on a sample of 20 students from Marko Marulić Polytechnic of Knin. According to the evaluation results, sage infusion was graded as sufficient by the respondents. Infusions from lavender, thyme and linden were graded as good, whereas infusions from mint, chamomile and fennel were graded as very good by the respondents.