Abstract
Botanical ingredients and herbs have been well known in India for both taste and cure aspects. Despite the fact that herbs and spices bear a toxin load in the forms of synthetic insecticides, fungi, microbial and allergens, the Indian therapy system ‘Ayurveda’ deals with herbal compositions for cure applications. Herbs and spices have been found to contain antimicrobial compounds. In detail, herbs with lower microbial load exhibit higher antimicrobial property and hence have food preservation concerns. Spices such as cinnamon, cloves, thyme, mustard and garlic are considered as food preservers and taste sources. Other spices such as long pepper, cinnamon, ginger, black pepper and thyme are extensively used in Ayurvedic medicine. Dense forest infrastructure is required in India for an effective soil and water conservation with concern to the elimination or minimisation of synthetic insecticides and aflatoxins in botanical ingredients for culinary and medicinal reliability.
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Notes
- 1.
A list of these ingredients can be provided here: Asafoetida or hing (Ferula asafoetida), Aloe vera or ghrut Kumari (liliaceae), basil or tulsi (Ocinum spp), black pepper or kali mirch (Piper nigrum), cardamom or elachi (Elettaria cardamomum), chilli or mirch (Capsicum fruitescens) Cinnamon or dalchini (Cinnamomum zeylancium), cloves or laung (Eugenia caryophyllata), fenugreek or danamethi (Trigonella foenumgraecem), garlic or lahsun (Alium sativum), dry ginger or sonth (Zigiber officinale), honey or madhu or shahad, licorice or mulethi (Glycyrshiza glabra), mace or javitri (Myristica fragrans), nutmeg or jaiphal (Myristica fragrans), onion or kanda or pyaj (Allium cepa), poppy seeds or khuskhus dana (Papaver spp.) rose flowers or gulab pushpa (Rosa spp.) saffron or kesar (Crocus sativus), thyme or ajwan (Apium graveolens) and turmeric or haldi (Curcuma longa).
Abbreviations
- API:
-
Active pharmaceutical ingredient
- FSSR:
-
Food Safety and Standards Regulation
- ppm:
-
Part per million
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Sharma, R.K., Parisi, S. (2017). Botanical Ingredients and Herbs in India. Foods or Drugs?. In: Toxins and Contaminants in Indian Food Products. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-48049-7_3
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