Abstract

MARKER BASED ANALYTICAL STUDIES ON RASAM: A SOUTH INDIAN TRADITIONAL FUNCTIONAL FOOD

Agilandeswari Devarajan* and Mohan Maruga Raja M.K.

Abstract

Rasam, is a traditional functional food as its ingredients are medicinally claimed for various ailments. The main spices used in the preparation of rasam are tamarind, turmeric, chili pepper, cumin, garlic, black pepper, black mustard, curry leaves, coriander and asafoetida. Exhaustive literatures are available for the ingredients used in the preparation of rasam, but the details of chemical and/or biological markers present in rasam were not available. Hence, this study was carried out to investigate a marker based analytical study on rasam in a stage wise samples (RS3 and RS4). Marker compounds like, β-sitosterol, ascorbic acid, capsaicin, curcuminoids, ferulic acid, mahanimbine, piperine and quercetin were analysed for their presence by HPTLC/HPLC in rasam. The marker analytic study of rasam samples RS3 and RS4 showed only the presence of ascorbic acid, capsaicin, ferulic acid and piperine. Furthermore, the study indicated that increase in temperature from RS3 to RS4 decreased the quantity of capsaicin and piperine whereas, the quantity of ascorbic acid increased from RS3 to RS4 in rasam. Ferulic acid remained almost unchanged from RS3 to RS4. Further studies are needed to accurately ascertain the exact chemical composition of rasam apart from the markers studied.

Keywords: Chaaru, HPLC, HPTLC, Saaru, spices.