Summary:
In 2008, the bioprospecting division took up the study of red tamarind for extracting the pigment to use it as a colouring agent. Now, scientists at the Institute of Forest Genetics and Tree Breeding (IFGTB) have come up with a solution that address both the problems: A natural food colouring agent extracted from ratha puli (red tamarind), a mutant tamarind variety abundant in Tamil Nadu.Named Tara-Red, the colouring agent is extracted from Tamarindus indica var. “We identified 32 samples of red tamarind, of which 30 were from the southern districts in Tamil Nadu,” said IFGTB director Mohit Gera. Products containing natural colouring agents are prohibitively expensive. “Stability is the character of a colouring agent by which it retains the colour..