Use of fungal pectic enzyme in the production of tamarind concentrate.

Tamarind fruit is used as an acidulant in various food preparations in India. A ready-to-use tamarind concentrate has been developed, but it has certain drawbacks. In order to overcome these drawbacks and to obtain a product of standard quality an enzymic processing method was investigated. The tamarind pulp was extracted by tempering it in cold or hot water in a blender followed by squeezing through cloth. Pectin enzyme concentrate (PEC) was used for depectinizing the pulp. After 15 h of reaction time, the juice was expressed and analysed. Results are tabulated. Data show that PEC aids extraction. Even at 1.0% almost max. extraction was reached. From 5 kg of tamarind pulp, 3.46 kg of free-flowing concentrate was obtained with the following characteristics: Brix 75.0, acidity 18.1% and pH 2. Treatment with PEC gave a clear juice, which on concn. gave an acceptable product which was non-viscous and free-flowing.