Studies on Phytochemical Evaluation of Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) Genotypes Prevailing in Eastern Dry Zone of Karnataka

The present investigation entitled “Studies on Phytochemical evaluation of tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) Genotypes prevailing in Eastern dry zone of Karnataka” was carried out in the laboratory, Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, GKVK, Bangalore, during the year 2018 and 2019. The study was carried out with 22 treatments (genotypes) consist of ripe fruits collected from selected trees of tamarind exist in Department of Horticulture, College of Agriculture, GKVK, Bangalore, under Randomized Block Design with three replications. Higher Ascorbic acid content of pulp recorded in T19 [GKTAM-19 (11.35 mg/100g)], and lower Ascorbic acid content of pulp was recorded in T9 [GKTAM-9 (5.67 mg/100g)]. Higher Tartaric acid content of pulp was noticed in T1 [GKTAM-1 (12.15 %)] and lower Tartaric acid content of pulp was noticed in T6 [GKTAM-6 (6.21 %)].


INTRODUCTION
Tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) is a hardy evergreen monotypic tree which belongs to the family "Leguminosae" and sub-family Caesalpinaceae and has the chromosome number 2n=24. The name tamarind was derived from the Arabic word "Tamar-E-Hind" meaning "Date of India". It is cultivated throughout the tropics and sub-tropics of the world and has become naturalized at many places. Tamarind is an economically important tree of India as well as Karnataka. In India, it is abundantly grown in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu.
Almost every part of the tree are useful, but the most important is the fruit pulp. It is a rich source of vitamins, minerals and also contains more of calcium than any other fruit.
Hence it has a potential commercial future for the preparation of soft drinks, jams and confectioneries. The pulp contains a small amount of carotene, thiamine and nicotinic acid. The ascorbic acid content in tamarind is in very small quantity (2 to 20 mg/100 g), moisture ranged from (20.15 to 24.50%) and (8-18%) and predominantly tartaric acid (Ishola et al., 1990). The content of tartaric acid, however, does not decrease during fruit ripening, indicating that it is not utilized in fruit development; but during this time, reducing sugars increase to 30-40 percent giving the sour fruit a sweeter taste (El-Siddig et al., 2006). Generally, the chemical constituents of the fresh ripe tamarind varieties varied depending on location, soil, climate and other agro-climatic conditions. While, pod yield is a very complex economic character and it is outcome of association of number of factors inherent in plant, genetic linkage and the environment in which the plant is grown. Keeping above points in view, the present entitled "Studies on Physico-chemical evaluation of tamarind (Tamarindus indica L.) Genotypes prevailing in Eastern dry zone of Karnataka" was undertaken.

Tartaric acid
Tartaric acid was determined by computation. Titrable acidity was expressed in terms of tartaric acid using equivalent weight of tartaric acid (Roopa and Kesiviswanatham, 2013). T = Titre value E = Equivalent weight of the acid (G) based on the organic acid expressed N = Normality of NaOH W = Weight equivalent (g) of the sample to the aliquot used for titration

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The data pertaining to Tartaric acid and Ascorbic acid pH are presented in Table 1. Ascorbic Acid (mg/100g) Significant differences were recorded between the accessions for ascorbic acid both during 2018-19 and 2019-20 as well as for pooled average.
All the phytochemical components of tamarind fruit pulp recorded was seen significant differences in all the accessions studied. Accessions GKTAM-1, GKTAM-18 and GKTAM-19 which found to be on par with each other, poses higher level of ascorbic acid and tartaric acid content. However, tartaric acid content in GKTAM-18 was close to GKTAM-1 and GKTAM-19.