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Abstract
In North Cachar Hills district of Assam, Dimasa, a type of tribal people prepared their indigenous rice beer called Judima. The fermentation of Judima is usually carried out in earthen/aluminum pots at room temperature and takes about 4-5 days for completion of the fermentation. The authors visited some of the rural areas where judima is prepared and the process of preparation was observed and documented. The Carbohydrate, protein, free amino acids and alcohol percentage of the particular tribal wine was estimated to evaluate their nutritional status. Antioxidant activity of Judima along with different plants used for the preparation of Judima was also studied. A short term cytotoxicity study on peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) was carried out to determine its cytotoxic effect on the cells keeping ethanol (50% and 100%) as a standard. The result of present study showed that Judima contains good amounts of protein, carbohydrate and free amino acids with high antioxidant activity.
Article history
Received: 19 March 2013
Received in revised form: 10 October 2013
Accepted: 14 October 2013
Keywords
Judima
Wine
Tribes
Plant materials
Fermentation
Introduction
The preparation and consumption of traditionally prepared rice beer (wine) from different varieties of rice ingredients with plants, fruits, and flowers is a common practice among many tribal communities residing in the North-Eastern (N.E.) states of India and many of them have been preparing it since time immemorial. In addition each of the tribes also prepares their own unique starter cultures to carry out fermentation, and each type is a mixture of different parts of various plants (Das et al., 2012). The household liquor is associated with the regions rich indigenous knowledge system (Achaya, 1991). The traditional knowledge of wine making practice in N.E. region has been transferred from one generation to another through ages (Tanti et al., 2010; Das et al., 2012). This suggests a sense of common ownership amongst different communities. The method for beverage and wine production amongst tribes differ to quite an extent and employing different starter cultures, although they use more or less similar substrates for fermentation (Das et al., 2012). It also plays an important role in the socio-cultural life of the tribal people as it is found to be associated with many occasions like merry making,...