Studies on low temperature grinding of turmeric

Abstract

 The spices in India have been playing a great role in strengthening the economic conditions because of their characteristic aroma and presence of etheric oils which is mostly obtained after grinding. Grinding of spices generates heat which leads to loss of volatile oils and production of lower quality spice powders. To overcome this, cryogenic grinding system which uses Liquid Nitrogen or Liquid Carbon dioxide was developed. Being expensive, it wasn’t commercialized much in India. The main objective of this research was to study the effect of low temperature grinding of turmeric rhizome and development of pre-cooling unit for cooling turmeric. Performance evaluation was done at 5, 10, 15°C by circulating chill water through double jacketed pre-cooling chamber. The results revealed that volatile oil has been retained higher at 4.5% in 5°C grounded sample. Similarly energy consumption, time and increase in temperature during grinding are less while reducing the turmeric temperature before grinding.