Research Projects

The north east (NE) of India, with abundant local resources owing to the geographical location within the Indo-Burma biodiversity hotspot, has diverse traditionally prepared fermented foods and beverages used by diverse ethnic groups such as beverages, fermented vegetables, soybean, fish, meat, dairy products and various herbs. Several edible, non-edible, and poisonous mushrooms are prevalent in this region. Mushrooms have good market due to their nutritional properties. Fermented food is considered the most important source of gut probiotics and therefore, NE India may be a natural hub of candidate probiotics. With scientific interventions, some of the products may go to the super market. This project will focus on 3-5 numbers of such ethnic foods and beverages for their nutritional characterization, safety assessment, optimization of production process, value addition and development of probiotics.

A total of 67 samples were analyzed, including fermented bamboo shoots, soybeans, mustard leaves, fish, milk, rice beer, pickles, and edible mushrooms. Nutritional analysis conducted. Kombucha was prepared by blending with watermelon, jackfruit, and pineapple. (Patent applied for jackfruit blended Kombucha). 72 bacteria were isolated and screened as per DBT-ICMR guidelines. 42 potential probiotic bacteria identified.