Non-conventional food plants (NCFP) have shown a great potential as new sources of prebiotics (oligossaccharides, resistant starch) and should be considered in dairy food formulations improving the technological and functional parameters. In this study, the addition of arrowroot flour (Maranta arundinacea L., 0; 1.5; 3.0 and 4%, wt/wt) in vanilla dairy dessert formulation was evaluated taking in account some physico-chemical and functional parameters. Glycemic index (GI), color parameters, pH, syneresis index and volatile compounds profile refrigerated storage (4°C) were performed. Overall, the arrowroot flour addition presented low GI (41.8%) without however, present effect on whiteness (P > 0.05), although chroma value was negatively affected (P < 0.05) by the addition of 3 and 4% wt/wt of flour (15.31 ± 0.09 and 13.80 ± 0.29, respectively). On the reverse, pH values was not influenced (P > 0.05) by flour addition and ranged from 6.14 ± 0.03 to 6.27 ± 0.17, respectively, while the syneresis index decreased along the refrigerated storage (28 d/4°C), which suggests that arrowroot flour addition improves an important technological for this dairy product. Regarding the volatile profile, Di-hydro-4-hydroxi-2 (3H)-furanone and benzoic acid were the major compounds and alcohols were the most abundant substance type found in the dairy desserts samples added with arrowroot flour. Arrowroot flour presented a great potential as non-conventional food plant ingredient for vanilla dairy dessert formulation as it proportionate a decrease of glycemic index and syneresis index, improving the technological and functional properties of vanilla dairy desserts