Development of Brahmi Leaves (Centella asiatica) Incorporated Health Mix for Improving Undernutrition and Intelligence among Children

The incidence of undernutrition among children is high in India. Undernutrition in children leads to growth failure, increased morbidity rates, decreased life expectancy, declined cognitive function and development, decreased learning ability, poor academic performance, suboptimal adults’ efficiency, and decreased economic growth for nations. The health mix is the most popular, convenient, easy to prepare and healthy dish for the children. This chapter deals with the development of cheaper and nutritious health mix for improving the nutritional status and cognitive function in children. The raw ingredients were procured, processed, powdered and mixed into 5 variations of health mix. The developed health mixes were analyzed for their nutritional and sensory qualities. The results stated that the health mix III with the combination of multi grain such as redrice (25 g), bajra (25 g), greengram (20 g), soyabean (10 g), riceflakes (10 g), jaggery (8 g) and brahmi leaves (2 g) received significantly higher scores and also selected as best in having high amount of essential nutrients namely, protein (14.9 g), fat (1.68 g), iron (6.52 g), zinc (1.91 mg), selenium (445 mg)required for the improvement of nutritional status and cognitive function. And also, the prepared health mix variation IIIgained the highest rating in many sensory qualities and their results were comparable to the control sample. Therefore, thehealth mixprepared with the combination of various multigrain along withbrahmi leaves, as one of the most convenient food formulas for supplementation to the undernourished children. Future studies on such supplementation to improve the nutritional status and cognitive function of the undernourished children is recommended.