Development and Evaluation of Immune Boosters Based Health Plus for HIV/AIDS

Abstract

An ideal food for prevention and correction of nutritional inadequacies should be of high nutritive value, acceptable, readily available at low price, familiar to the community and have good tolerance both in good health and illness. Development of supplements using low cost locally available indigenous foods familiar to the community, especially women, has been one of the strategies proven to be effective in improving the health status of the community. Keeping this in view, the present study was undertaken with the main objective to identify the locally available foods rich in immune boosters, modulators and regulators, and to formulate different five health mixes coded as HMI, HMII, HM III, HM IV and HM V. To identify the best combination and proportion of ingredients, six variations were formulated from each health mix making the total to thirty. All the thirty variations of the health mixes were given different code numbers. By applying five point rating scale and DMR test, the highly acceptable mix was selected. The results showed that among the best varieties from each health mix, variations from each health mix variation 5 of health mix V got the highest score in taste and colour, maximum nutrient content, minimum moisture content and peroxide value and less total bacterial count and hence variations of health mix V was adjusted to be the best and named as HEALTH PLUS. The findings of the study revealed that the ingredients namely wheat, soy flour, wheat germ, tomato, beet ischolar_main, sun flower seeds, and jaggery which are available at our doorsteps are foods rich in immune boosters, modulators and regulatory to improve the immune level of the HIV positive women.