TOI, GUWAHATI: The humble rice beer, which is brewed in many ethnic households across the northeast, has been found to have many nutritional values including antioxidant properties that may be beneficial in fighting several diseases.

Researchers from the Jorhat-based College of Home Science (CHS)'s department of food and nutrition, Assam Agricultural University (AAU) and the Tamil Nadu-based Indian Institute of Crop Processing Technology (IICPT) have found antioxidant activity in rice beer samples in the laboratory.

The research on rice beer samples was carried out by Deep Jyoti Bhuyan and Mridula Saikia Barooah of the CHS's department of food and nutrition, Sudipta Sankar Bora of AAU and K Singaravadivel of IICPT.

"The antioxidant activity in the rice beer samples was most likely caused by the presence of phenolic acids, polyphenols and flavonoids from various indigenous herbs used in the preparation of the starter culture cake. These compounds are known to inhibit the oxidative mechanism that are responsible for many disorders and diseases in humans such as infections, diabetes, arthritis, cardiovascular diseases, cancer, Alzheimer's diseases, AIDS and so on," their research paper stated.

The researchers have pointed out that besides being consumed as a beverage by different tribes in the region, rice beer is also traditionally used for therapeutic purposes. They highlighted some traditional therapeutic use of rice beer by the Karbi community of Assam, which uses the brew called Hor Acho to cure dysentery and pharyngitis.

"If Japan's traditional brew sake could become popular internationally, the northeast's particular variety of rice beer has all the potential to become a value-added beverage. That is why we made a scientific intervention on the traditional rice beer of the northeast so that we could find out its nutritional and therapeutic properties. We need to carry out more scientific studies on it for further value-addition," Barooah said.

Different tribes have their own names and tradition of brewing rice beer, which has an important role in their socio-cultural lives. The northeast has over 150 tribes and 200 sub-tribes, each of them having unique traditions of making rice beer. The preparation of the rice beer is an intricate and sophisticated process handed down through the generations. Usually, it is the women of the tribe who are involved in making the rice beer.