Scientists showing the ‘Anantha Rudhira’ variety of tamarind, at the Arid Zone Fruits Research Centre.
Colour extracted from the fruit also brings more income to the farmers
At a time when awareness on using natural products for colouring food and bakery items is high in the country, scientists at the All India Coordinated Research Project on Arid Zone Fruits at Rekulakunta in Anantapur district have come up with a pigment solution that is extracted from ‘Anantha Rudhira’ variety of tamarind.
Anantha Rudhira, developed at the only horticulture research centre on arid fruits for Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, was test-grown and nationally released in February 2018 with the pulp vacuoles having a red non-toxic pigment anthocyanin that is soluble in water.
This variety of tamarind has since been in high demand as in addition to being drought-resistant, it was high-yielding providing farmers good returns from the fourth year of planting the saplings raised at the Rekulakunta experimental farm through grafting from its mother plant, Principal Scientist B. Sreenivasulu told The Hindu.
A research team comprising a pathology scientist P. Deepthi, and horticulture scientist B. Vimala along with Mr. Srinivasulu in the ICAR-supported project have been experimenting on sustainable methods of extraction of anthocyanin that is visible when the tamarind pods are 150 to 160 days. The red colour slowly diminishes as the tamarind matures and pulp begins to soften.
Most suitable planting season/time for these saplings is June-July or January-February and the most demand is from Karnataka, A.P, Telangana and Maharashtra, said Mr. Srinivasulu.
10 value-added products
Anantha Rudhira mother plant developed from its ‘champion’ trees from Panthnagar in Uttar Pradesh and Parbani in Maharashtra that had this pigment characteristic, is being used to grow saplings based on indents (currently 15,000). Not stopping at that, the research team recently developed 10 value-added products based on red anthocyanin – syrup, juice, Toffees, lollypops, squash, bakery items and ‘raw tamarind chatni’ (thokku).
They have been very popular at a couple of exhibitions where they were displayed by the research team, said Ms. Deepthi.
The Anantha Rudhira pods are wide, long and attractive, in addition to giving a high yield of six tonne per hectare against three tonne yielded by normal varieties.
Another variety
A second variety developed at this centre is Thettu Amalika, which enables farmers make higher pulp recovery at 50% compared to 30% in normal varieties. The champion tree was identified at Thettu in Chittoor district and provides ₹20,000 income per hectare from the fifth year of planting, while consumers get a product that has better nutritive value, higher doses of calcium, phosphorus, and vitamin C.
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