Kithul Flour (Caryota urens) as a Substitute Flour Ingredient for Food Industry and Household Cooking

Flour from many sources such as wheat, maize, chickpea, etc. provides a better raw material for the production of different bakery foods. In the bakery industry, flour is used as a taste enhancer, thickener, binder, and filler as well as stabilizer.

Resent researchers gain keen attention to discover novel sources of flour, which exist in the wild, and Kithul (Caryota urens) is such a good example of this requirement, which is still considered as a semi-wild plant species. Kithul belongs to the palm family and it is inborn in India, Malaysia, and Sri Lanka. These countries highly used Kithul in the production of toddy and jaggery and thus, this plant is known as either toddy palm or jaggery palm.

The edible flour deposited inside the trunk of the Kithul tree. In the extraction process of flour, first, a Kithul tree is cut down. Then, the pieces of pith are removed from the trunk. After that, the pith is cut into small pieces and powdered using the mortar and pestle. Next, a pot is filled with water and a clean cloth is tied to its mouth. Then the crushed pith is mixed with water and allowed to strain through the cloth to the pot. After some time, the flour settles down in the pot. It is sun-dried to make Kithul flour. This method is known as the wet method of Kithul flour production. However, some rural folks follow the dry method of Kithul flour preparation where portions of pith were dried, pounded and sieved through the household strainer. 

Starch is the major constituent of Kithul flour (which represents 66%). The protein and fat content of Kithul flour is 1.0% and 0.3%, respectively. Moreover, the crude fiber content of Kithul flour is ranged from 0.5 to 1.5%. It is important to highlight that, Kithul flour exhibited lower protein content (1.0%) than wheat flour (10%). Interestingly, research demonstrated that Kithul flour had a significant amount of nutritionally important minerals such as Iron (Fe = 14.0 mg/100g dry basis), Zinc (Zn = 3.3 mg/100g) and Calcium (Ca = 70.1 mg/100g). As seen in the following table, Calcium and Iron (Fe) content of the Kithul flour was higher than wheat flour.

The functional properties of Kithul flour are regulated by amylose and amylopectin content. Based on the research findings, Kithul flour belongs to high amylose (25-33 %) category due to it has contained 28.42% Amylose content and the rest is Amylopectin (71.32%). It is worth to highlight that due to the high bulk density of Kithul flour, it can be used as a potential thickening ingredient and as a packaging material in the food industry. In addition to that, Kithul flour has huge potentials to provide better gelling property. Because of these functional properties, Kithul flour is used for different preparations. "Kithul thalapa or gell" and “Kithul thick porridge” are some traditional ways of preparation. Moreover, some research findings suggest that successful development of incorporation of modified Kithul Flour as a stabilizer in drinking yogurt. In addition to that, fruit-based desserts can also be produced using Kithul flour as the gelatinizing agent.

“Kithul flour” is claimed to have health benefits according to folklore and Ayurveda. It is evident from previous research that Kithul flour has moderate antioxidant property and these antioxidants are believed to possess numerous health benefits of Kithul Flour. However, as yet, the health benefits of Kithul flour have not been fully scientifically investigated, which merits future investigations. Moreover, the traditional ways of producing Kithul flour in rural areas are no longer meet the demand for the requirement in the food industry as qualitatively and quantitatively. Thus, further research works are required to undertake the development of the effective and hygienic mechanical process to extract from Kithul bark which leads to producing high yield in compromise with quality to full fill food industrial requirements.

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References

Wijesinghe, J. A. A. C., Wicramasinghe, I., & Saranandha, K. H. (2015). Kithul flour (Caryota urens) as a potential flour source for food industry.

Wimalasiri, G. E. M., Ranasinghe, P., Gunaratne, D. M. A., & Arachchi, L. V. (2016). Antioxidant and anti-diabetic properties of Caryota urens (Kithul) flour. Procedia Food Science, 6, 181-185.

Wijesinghe, J. A. A. C., Wickramasinghe, I., & Saranandha, K. H. (2018). Optimizing organoleptic properties of drinking yoghurt incorporated with modified kithul (Caryota urens) flour as a stabilizer and evaluating its quality during storage. Vidyodaya Journal of Science, 21(1).

Marpana, R. A. U. J. (2015). Development of cinnamon flavoured instant porridge powder using amylase treated kithul flour (Caryota urens).