Metal profile of traditional alcoholic beverages prepared by the ethnic communities of Assam, India

摘要

The rice-based traditional alcoholic beverages prepared by the ethnic communities, viz., Deori, Mising and Ahomcommunities of Sivasagar district of Assam, India are known as Sujen, Apong and Xajpani, respectively. The concentrations of Na, K, Cr, Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu, Zn, Cd and Pb in these traditional drinks have been determined with a view to making the general public aware of the average daily intake of these metals from the consumption of these rice beers. The metal contents were estimated using atomic spectrometry after digesting the samples with nitric acid and sulphuric acid. The mean concentrations of themetals (mg/L) in the samples were: 20-60 for Na; 300-460 for K; 0.011-0.325 for Mn; 0.709-4.15 for Fe; 0.13-0.313 for Co; 0.28-0.554 for Ni; 0.008-0.074 for Cu; 0.674-3.968 for Zn; 0.02-0.05 for Cd; and 0.48-1.13 for Pb. The presence of Cr could not be detected. Based on the results, traditional alcoholic beverages consumed by the ethnic communities of Assam, India, can be considered safe and can be used as a supplement of essential nutrients such as potassium, iron, manganese and zinc. Themetal contents of these rice beers have been compared with those of wheat and barley beers. (C) 2017 The Institute of Brewing & Distilling