Tamarind fruit

Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) is an important tropical tree widely grown in India. Although its fruit can be used for wine production, its wine is not preferred due to its high acidity. An attempt has been made to convert its wine into vermouth of acceptable quality (Lingappa et ah, 1993). In this process, the base wine was made from tamarind fruit (50 g/L), at 0.9% acidity, followed by raising the TSS to 23 °Brix and adding 150 ppm sulfur dioxide. Fermentation was conducted by S. cere-visiae var. ellipsoideus at 27 1 °C. Both dry and sweet vermouths, with 17% alcohol content, were found acceptable. 

The tamarind fruit (pod) has mainly pulp and seeds. The seeds are covered by a thin parchment, membrane-like structure. The pulp constitutes 30-50% of ripe fruit (Purseglove, 1987 Shankaracharya, 1998). The shell and fibre account for 11-30% and the seed constitutes around 25 10% (Chapman, 1984). The fruit pulp (both ripe and dried) contains mainly tartaric acid, reducing sugars, pectin, tannin, fibre and cellulose. The general composition of tamarind fruits is given in Table 20.1. 

Tamarind has tartaric acid as its major organic acid component. Many polyphenols are found in the coat of the tamarind fruit. Tamarind kernel powder (TKP) has a xyloglucan, which has a variety of uses. TKP, a crude extract of tamarind seeds, has been used as a replacement for... 

Tamarind concentrate shall be obtained by hot water extraction of clean tamarind pulp, with subsequent concentration under vacuum. The tamarind fruits shall be mature, sound, fresh and shall be free from insect and fungal attack or any other blemish which affects quality. There should not be any added colouring or flavouring agents. 

It shall be manufactured under hygienic conditions, light to dark brown in colour, and the flavour should be characteristic of tamarind fruit. No burnt flavour should be present. It shall be free from harmless extraneous vegetable materials (fibre and rind common to tamarind, and stems up to... 

Grollier, C., Debien, C., Dornier, M. and Reynes, M. (1998), Prominent characteristics and possible uses of the tamarind. Fruits-Paris 53(4), 271-278. 

Tamarind flowers, leaves and seeds can be eaten as vegetables and are prepared in a variety of dishes (13). They are used to make curries, salads, stews and soups in many countries, especially in times of scarcity (Benthall, 1933, cited in (5)). Before consumption, leaves are sometimes boiled in water and prepared together with tamarind fruits (5). 

Figure 1. Tamarind Fruit (SOURCE Emmy De Caluwe, Senegal, 2007)...

Tamarind fruit also contain minerals and exhibit high antioxidant capacity that appear to be associated with a high phenolic content, thus can be an important food source (3). 

The proximate compostion of the tamarind fruit depends on locality (3) (Table I). The pulp has a low water content and a high level of protein, carbohydrates and minerals. However, (P) reported that the fruit pulp is relatively poor in protein (87.9 g/kg) and oil (25.3 g/kg). 

Table 1. Proximate Composition of Tamarind Fruit Pulp...

Table III. Essential Amino Acid Content of Tamarind Fruit Pulp Compared to WHO s Ideal Standard...

Tamarind fruit pulp is relatively poor in oil (25.3 g/kg of crude lipid), greenish yellow in color and liquid at room temperature. Saponification valnes of the oil are high, indicating that it contains a high proportion of low molecnlar weight fatty acids (P). 

Besides anti-oxidant activities, hypolipemic activity was observed from tamarind frait extract in hypercholesterolemic hamsters (76). Treatment of hypercholesterolemic hamsters with tamarind fruit pulp extract (5%) led to a decrease in the levels of serum total cholesterol (50%), non-high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (73%) and triglyceride (60%), and to an increase of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels (61%). 

Tamarind fruits are reported to have anti-fungal and anti-bacterial properties (Ray and Majumdar, 1976, Guerin and Reveillere, 1984, Bibitha et al, 2002, Metwali, 2003, and John et al, 2004, all cited in (5)). According to Al-Fatimi and collaborators 11), in an agar diffusion assay, extracts from T. indica flowers showed antibacterial activity against four bacteria tested Staphylococcus aureus, Bacillus subtilis, Escherichia coli and Pseudomonas aeruginosa). Antimicrobial activity of T. indica study has been attributed to lupeol (Ali et al, 1998, cited in 11)). 

Extracts from tamarind fruit pulp have shown molluscicidal activity against Bulinus trancatus snails. This is probably due to the presence of saponins in the fruit (Imbabi and Abu-Al-Futuh, 1992a, cited in (5)). 

There is medical interest in the use of purified xyloglucan from tamarind in eye surgery for conjunctival cell adhesion and corneal wound healing (Burgalassi et al., 2000 and Ghelardi et al., 2000, cited in (5)). Other medicinal interest relates to the use of tamarind fruit to manage fluoride toxicity (Khandare et al., 2000, cited in (5)). 

Senthilkumar, S. T., R. K. Selvan, J. S. Melo, and C. Sanjeeviraja. 2013. High performance solid-state electric double layer capacitor from redox mediated gel polymer electrolyte and renewable tamarind fruit shell derived porous carbon. ACS Applied Materials Interfaces 5 10541-10550. 

Isol. from tamarind fruits (Tamarindus indica). Cytotoxic agent. Oil. [ ]d -9.8 (c, 1 in Me2CO). 

The tamarind fruit from six different areas of Madagascar were ana-... 

The tamarind fruit that is grown in upper Egypt is brewed into a popular soft drink. The oil yield and fatty acid composition were very different from the Indian tamarind. The seeds contain 16.25% oil with a composition that is high in linoleic, oleic and lauric acids (Table 5.11). Lesser amounts of stearic and linolenic were present. The tamarind seed meal was also low in protein (2.66%) compared to other oil seeds (cottonseed, peanut) but does contain a substantial amount of sugar (25.28%) which would give the meal a high caloric value if used as an animal feed (Morad et al., 1978). 

Somasekara Reddy, M. C. Removal of direct dye fiom an aqueous solutions with an adsorbent made from tamarind fruit shell an agricultural solid waste. Journal of scientific and industrial research. 2006, 65,443 46. 

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