Under modern people's high-intensity life rhythm and survival pressure, functions such as anti-fatigue, anti-oxidation, and immunity enhancement have become the strong demands of many beverage consumers. In view of this, maca root beverage has become the key research and development direction of many beverage manufacturers and has a very broad market prospect.
Maca Overview
Maca (Lepidium Meyenii Walp) is an annual or biennial herb of the genus Lepidium in the Brassicaceae family. The main edible part of maca is its tuber, so usually maca refers to the maca tuber. For more than 2,000 years, maca has been given the reputation of "Peruvian Ginseng" and "South American Ginseng" by the locals due to its rich nutritional value and special health benefits such as anti-fatigue, anti-oxidation, and fertility improvement.
In 2003, Maca seeds were introduced from Yunnan, China, and the maca cultivation technology was promoted and demonstrated in the 3050m altitude area. In 2008, the promotion planting area of maca reached 133 hectares, and the yield per mu could reach 400g-600kg.
Macs Beverage Uses
The superior physiological activity of maca has attracted extensive attention in the industry. At present, many international companies have launched maca beverages, such as dynamic beverages and vitamin beverages, tea beverages, and solid beverages. At present, there are three main ways to add maca in the beverage industry:
1. Add maca powder directly as a raw material. This method has a simple process and is often used in industrial production.
However, the product contains a lot of crude fiber, which is easy to precipitate, which may affect the release and absorption of active ingredients.
2. The active substances in maca powder are extracted by water extraction, alcohol extraction and other techniques. make it into granules, powder,
Concentrate, etc. are added for use. This method is beneficial to the enrichment of active substances and is often used in industrial production.
3. Extract and separate and purify the active substances in the maca powder to make a high-purity extract for use. This method precisely controls the amount of active substance added in the product, the method is complicated in process, high in cost, and less in practical application.
Why Use Maca Root For Drinks?
The main functions of maca sports drinks and vitamin drinks developed by several companies are to improve exercise endurance and resist fatigue. Solid beverages with functions such as physical weakness and kidney protection for middle-aged and elderly people also have certain health care appeals in the consumer market.
Summary
Although various active components of maca root have been confirmed to have good physiological activities, factors such as cost, taste, and technology make it difficult to add them in beverages to the confirmed effective dose. Therefore, it is necessary to strengthen the research on new beverage technologies and the innovation of new categories, and further expand the research and development direction of maca beverages, in order to develop more new maca beverages that meet the health demands of consumers.