Effect of preprocessing treatment on the quality of ground turmeric

Sonali Sinha, Karunakar Singh,Vivek Kumar

Harcourt Butler Technological Institute,Kanpur In food sector, the core activity of turmeric rhizomes preprocessing need to be intertwined with scientific and technical linkages to secure better quality end results. Many of the health beneficial physiological effects of Curcuma longa, has been documented in recent years, are due to its biological compound curcumin. However, considerable decrease in the amount of curcumin has been observed during the heat treatment of rhizomes which eventually yield low quality turmeric (Suresh et al, 2009). Whether processing of turmeric or preprocessing of rhizomes both process involve the heat treatment that results into decreased amount of this biological compound of turmeric. So, preprocessing treatments of turmeric rhizomes needs an immediate revision and editing to obtain improved quality turmeric powder. As, preprocessing treatments of rhizomes involves a series of operations- curing, blanching, cleaning, peeling, slicing, drying, grinding and sieving to make the processing of turmeric easier, there are some gaps and limitations in research of preprocessing treatment of turmeric. Like, structure of only 3 of several degraded compounds of curcumin has been identified yet and the search for technology of improving stability of curcuminoid pigment is still going on. Research shows that we need to throw a light on the effect of acidulants on curcumin during preprocessing treatments for better commercial output. This paper includes the studies on the effect of various acidulants used in preprocessing treatments on the quality of ground turmeric.