Tamarind Kernal Powder

TAMARIND is the fruit of a large tropical tree grown in forests, orchards and as an avenue tree along the roads. It is mainly planted in the region of South India and some other parts of India. It takes more than 10 years for the tree to start yielding. Tamarind trees bloom once a year, during July-August and the Tamarind fruits are ready to harvest by January-February.

Each tree yields thousands of fruits. The size of each fruit is 10 cm to 15 cm long and 15 to 20 mm broad in a curved form. Each fruit contains 6 to 8 seeds. The fruit is protected with an outer shell of brown colour. These are called pods.

Seeds are taken out of Tamarind manually with the help of a sharp knife. Tamarind seed is very strong and is covered with a black-brown hull/husk. The villagers collect and sell these raw seeds to the merchants in their nearest town who store the seeds in their godown and sell in the market. The average crop size of Tamarind kernel seeds is 100,000 tons per year. Major part of this goes to cattle feed industry within India. The seeds are de-husked, broken, cleaned and ground to obtain Tamarind Kernel Powder.