Table 1. Comparing meat quality characteristics among the sous-vide (SV) cooked chicken breasts with different herbal plant extracts

Variables	Control	Treatments			SEM	Level of significance
Variables	Control	AM	AT	Up	SEM	Level of significance
Meat pH	6.19	6.22	6.16	6.17	0.03	NS
Color - surface region
Lightness (L*)	81.7^a	81.7^a	82.0^a	78.6^b	0.62	**
Redness (a*)	3.12	3.11	2.86	3.05	0.37	NS
Yellowness (b*)	14.6^b	14.0^b	14.6^b	16.1^a	0.49	*
Hue angle¹⁾	77.3	77.5	79.0	79.1	1.31	NS
Saturation index²⁾	14.4^b	13.7^b	14.9^b	16.4^a	0.50	*
Color - inner region
Lightness (L*)	83.2	84.3	84.3	84.6	0.45	NS
Redness (a*)	3.91	3.93	3.63	3.43	0.33	NS
Yellowness (b*)	12.5	11.2	11.9	11.7	0.61	NS
Hue angle¹⁾	72.5	70.3	73.0	73.4	1.76	NS
Saturation index²⁾	13.1	12.0	12.5	12.2	0.58	NS
Cooking loss (%)	17.4^b	17.1^b	18.5^a	16.5^b	0.36	**
Warner-Bratzler shear force (N)	18.2	19.9	17.7	19.8	1.17	NS

Hue angle = tan^–1 (b* / a*).
Saturation index = (b*² + a*²)^0.5.
p<0.05;
p<0.01.
Different superscripts in the same row represent significant differences (p<0.05).
Control, SV cooked chicken breast with distilled water; AM, SV cooked chicken with the Astragalus membranaceus extract; AT, SV cooked chicken with the Adenophora triphylla extract; UP, SV cooked chicken with the Ulmus pumila extract; NS, not significant.