Traditional alkaline food additives ?Kola-khar? extracted from banana rhizome with reference to Musa balbisianafrom Assam the state of India

Abstract

Author(s): Aniruddha Sarma1*, Manish Das1and Tapan Dutta

Kolakhar’ a food additive, extracted fromsemidried banana plant parts viz. bananatrunk, fruit peel and rhizome, is a traditional alkaline preparation use by the different communities ofAssam in their diet. Because of the high alkalinity, it has commercial importance too. ‘Kola-khar’only from different banana rhizomes has been investigated for its physicochemicaland compared with traditionally usedMusa bulbisianaextract. Physicochemicalinvestigation shows that carbonate, chloride, calcium and magnesium isthemajorconstituent in ‘Kola-kharand also‘kolakhar’ is used asatraditional ingredient and a popular food additive in Assam andother parts of North-East India, the studies were conducted to assess the possibilities of other thanM.bulbisianarhizome extract as food additives. Observationsrevealthat pH ranges from 10.05-11.95,while hydroxyl alkalinity was ranging from 37000mg/l to 222000 mg/l,thetotal amount of hardness ranging from 50 mg/l to 500mg/l, magnesiumranging from 0.02431 to 0.2569 mg/l, calcium rangingfrom 0.16032 to 0.2004 mg/landchlorideranging from 14889 mg/l to 40413 mg/l in different experimented rhizome sample of banana

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